


Chains of Light

by the_protector_of_light



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe- Kairi Gets Keyblade First, Follows Basic Outline of Kingdom Hearts 1 With Many Differences, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-07-29 04:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 52,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7670686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_protector_of_light/pseuds/the_protector_of_light
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kairi has been having strange dreams that make her question the worlds around her. She and her best friends Riku and Sora are preparing to set out on a journey in attempts to reach other worlds. But a piece of the puzzle has changed, and fate as everyone knows it is set on a different path. When her world is destroyed, Kairi is forced to face strange new worlds without her best friends by her side and only two strangers named Donald and Goofy to help her along the way through countless worlds in search of Riku and Sora. Fate is a hard thing to change, and once changed, it can never go back.</p>
<p>(Alternate reality where Kairi receives her Keyblade on the Destiny Islands and doesn’t lose her heart.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chains of Light

0o0o0

Chapter 1

                She’d been having such bizarre dreams lately, ones that made her question reality. Was her life real, or were these dreams of a strange, faraway world with a colossal castle looming over a dark and foreboding town reality? She knew that some were memories of her childhood lying deep within her heart. She was born far away from her home on the Destiny Islands and had come to be here one night in a meteor shower; or at least, that was what she had been told. And the memories of her grandmother’s stories lay strong in her mind. But those… those were only memories. And memories are worth nothing in the end.

                The castle in her dreams was different. It was dark and falling apart, filled with creatures with glowing eyes that jumped out of her from the darkness. She felt so alone without Sora and Riku, but they weren’t there… In one of these dreams, she fought Riku. How could she fight _Riku?_ There had been no other choice within the realm of her dream; that she knew for sure; but what had happened that would make her fight one of her best friends? Something must have changed. Something must have happened of massive importance that could never be changed back, and that was her fear… What if she could never come back?

                What if one day, all of these dreams that she had were to become reality and she could never return to the life she once had?

                What if one day, her days playing on the island would be ended forever and she would forever be separated from her best friends?

0o0o0

                It was time for another dream. This time she was falling, but from where? She opened her eyes and saw the sea growing ever closer each second, but she wasn’t afraid. She looked at her reflection in the sunset-lit ocean growing nearer and nearer, the water rippling and reflecting the shades of gold but bringing nothing to the world other than the pain she would feel when she would drown and wake up from this nightmare. That would be logical, right? She closed her eyes in anticipation, opening them only for a moment when she heard a voice.

                “Kairi!” she heard a panicked voice call. She looked over and saw her dear friend Sora trying to make it to her destination, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to get that far in time. This would be just like any other dream, following the fixed patterns that made her dreams what they were… So predictable; it was comforting, and she would forget this all by morning.

                But as she heard the ocean waves crash growing closer and closer, she opened her eyes again, just in time to see as her head and body gently plunged into the water. There was no painful thud. Her mind cleared as she realized this dream must be different. It was one of _those_ dreams, the ones that felt so real. She felt the smooth water sliding against her skin as she went down and down into the darkness, the light above growing ever farther away. Instead, she saw a light from below, a faint circle in the distance.

                 Slowly she righted herself and her feet were set to land below her on whatever surface she approached. The water stopped sliding past and instead there was open air. She could breathe again. She glanced down as she approached the light; it was glowing through a strange panel of stained glass. The design on it; her friend Sora, and he stood there waiting for her.

                Kairi smiled as she landed on her feet. She looked down for a moment. “Sora!” she said with a laugh. “What’s going on? Do you know?”

                When she looked up, it wasn’t Sora that she saw. There was only darkness, and that darkness was growing. “Sora…?” She backed up a few steps as the darkness grew larger and larger until if formed into a giant; a creature black with golden eyes and a hole in the center of its body in the shape of a heart.

                _“Don’t be afraid,”_ voiceless words sounded in her mind. _“You hold the mightiest weapon of all.”_

                Weapon? Kairi had no weapon. She knew little of fighting, not frequently did she use the wooden swords that the others used to fight on the islands, and she most certainly had no weapon at the moment. She needed to run! There was no fighting this monster! She turned to run, but quickly ran out of ground to cover. She skidded to a halt and turned back to face her foe. What should she do now? There was nowhere to run. She clenched her fists… she felt something solid in her right hand.

                She glanced down briefly. There was a weapon, something familiar but far away. She didn’t know the word for it… it was a strange shaped sword. _“Keyblade,”_ she suddenly knew. She had seen one once, when she was a child. A beautiful woman with blue hair had saved her from strange creatures back then using a weapon much like this. And she had told her something, though she couldn’t remember her words. Something like ‘this will keep you safe’… but she didn’t know that she had meant this Keyblade.

                The monster was approaching and Kairi had no chance to think on it any longer. She gripped the sword’s hilt more tightly and took a deep breath before charging straight at the giant abomination. She had to fight, even if she didn’t know how. She knew the basics. She had been shown that much. Sure, she didn’t have the same level of skill as Riku and Sora, but she knew how to swing a sword. Hopefully that would be enough. This was only a nightmare after all. Yes, she just had to hold her own long enough to wake up…

                She managed to get in several hits and took very few of her own. But the monster did not waver. The darkness was just too powerful, too consuming. Kairi fell to her knees and was at a loss of what to do. She tried to get back to her feet, but she was knocked sliding across the glass instead. Why was this happening? This was a dream. A nightmare! She should have woken up by now…

 _“But don’t be afraid; you hold the mightiest weapon of all,”_ the words repeated. Don’t be afraid? She was terrified; anyone would be. _“Don’t forget…”_ Kairi saw seething darkness beneath her. It began to suck her in. _“You will be the one who will open the door.”_

                There was a burst of light that sent all of the darkness away. Kairi stood up and looked around. What had happened? And… why hadn’t she woken up?

                Sora was standing across the platform again, same goofy grin as always on his face. “Kairi?” he said. “Kairi, you need to go back…”

                And everything faded out into a clear white light.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

                Kairi sat straight up in bed with a gasp, her hair falling into her face as she settled back into place. Her pillows and blankets were strewn across her bed from her rough sleep and her comforter slowly sank back into place where it had been thrown into air by her ascension. The sunlight slanted in her many windows of her bedroom filtering through the sheer white curtains. She could hear the faint singing of the birds outside. It wasn’t too early in the morning; she must have slept later than usual. She looked around the room to find the clock. Nine twenty-three. She _had_ slept later than usual.

                “What was up with that dream?” she wondered as she climbed out of bed and headed over to the closet. She didn’t have much time to ponder it. She needed to head over to the little island to meet with Riku and Sora. This was the beginning of their new adventure, after all. They were building a raft; they were going to see outside worlds. Though, in reality, Kairi didn’t really think the raft would take them very far. She was concerned about what would come of this plan, but she was going to play along with the boys’ idea to keep them out of trouble. What would it hurt to build a flimsy old raft and put in in the water? She was sure they would turn around for dry land the first time they tried to eat whatever meager portions they ended up with.

                So she went into her closet and pulled out her usual summer clothes, taking only the shortest time to pull them on before rushing out of her room, bed unmade, and dashing through the large house towards the front door. Just about there, she almost made it out without—“Slow down, young lady,” her mother teased. “What are you rushing off so quickly for?”

                “Oh, I, um… I’m late. I was supposed to meet Riku and Sora over at the islet at nine thirty, and there’s no way I’ll make it in time.” She had to be careful what she said around her easily worried mother. She didn’t want word of their plan to reach any of the adults in their lives. They’d just try to stop them, and probably succeed by grounding them.

                “Well at least walk inside the house,” her mother said. “They can wait at least that long.”

                “Yes ma’am,” she conceded. She sighed. “Can I go now?”

                “Yes, just be careful.” She came over and hugged her. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Be careful going over to the islet, okay?”

                Kairi rolled her eyes while she wasn’t looking but smiled when she did look. “Okay, Mom. I’ll stay safe!”

                “I’m running late too, so I’ve got to get to work.” Her mom smiled and headed out the door. “Too bad I’m not young and I have to walk in these high heels, or I’d race you to the edge of the lane.”

                Kairi laughed. “Get to work, Ms. Mayor,” she teased. “Don’t you have a town to run?”

                “Hey, it’s not like I run the whole town,” she joked. She ruffled her hair. “Go on; run off to meet your friends! Be a good influence on those boys, okay? Their parents do worry about them.”

                “Yes ma’am.” Once she was through the doorway she resumed her sprint across the yard out of the stately white mansion and through town to the docks.

0o0o0

                She finally pulled up on the dock on the islet and climbed out of her boat. She saw Riku and Sora waiting; they were standing nearer to each other than they had been, talking more cheerfully. Kairi was glad; their friendship had moved into what seemed more along the lines of rivalry of the late and that would be a problem once they set sail; it was good that they were getting along better since they were about to set out on a long journey stuck together constantly. When they spotted her coming, they both jumped away from each other. She hoped that they didn’t think she was jealous of their friendship because she wasn’t; she knew that the two had a special bond. Oh well, as odd as they were, they were her best friends.

                “Hey guys!” she called as she got within hearing range breathing hard from rowing at full speed after running the whole way to the docks. “Sorry I’m late.”

                “Don’t worry about it, Kairi,” Sora assured. “I’m usually the one who’s late.”

                “We were starting to get worried,” Riku said. “It’s unusual for you not to be here before us.”

                “I overslept,” Kairi admitted. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t trying to keep you waiting… But you know, you could have gotten to work without me!” she teased. They all laughed. “Okay, so let’s get started. Our goal for the day is to get the raft finished.”

                “Right.” Sora nodded. “So what all do we need?”

                So the components were named and Sora rushed off to do his share. He didn’t notice Riku didn’t follow right away, but he instead walked up to Kairi. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “I know you’re nervous. It can just be Sora and me.”

                Kairi crossed her arms. “If I wasn’t sure about this, then I wouldn’t have agreed to go along! Don’t worry; I’m sticking with you, and I won’t hold you back.” She walked towards the water and stopped. “I know that you and Sora have had this dream since you were little kids; to go out and see other worlds. And you were going to do it together.” She looked back at him. “And I know that I’m a little detail that you didn’t see joining in on this dream. But you know what? You invited me, so you’re not going to convince me to change my mind now that it’s settled on joining you on your little adventure. You invited me; I’m not letting you go back on that.”

                Riku grinned. He looked relieved. “Good. I’m glad to hear it. I’ve got to have someone to help me keep Sora in line. I swear; if something can go wrong, it would if it were only me and him. You hold us together, Kairi. Thank you for that.”

                Kairi smiled back and giggled. “You’re welcome. I like taking care of you guys.” She turned back and looked out over the ocean. “It’s I that should thank you, Riku. You and Sora… you took me in as soon as I made it to these islands. If it weren’t for you two, I never would have fit in. And you’ve taken me in as one of your own. So… Thanks, Riku. And I should thank Sora too.”

                Riku yawned. “I guess we’d better get to work too, don’t you think?” He started walking down the shore. “Catch you later, Kairi!” he turned back to call.

                “See you later!”

                Kairi sighed and looked around. It shouldn’t take her long to get the things that she had on her list gathered. Somehow she had ended up with fewer items; she figured it was some kind of competition between the two boys to show who was the better gentleman or something. She didn’t take offense to it and instead was grateful to have less work. Not that she minded hard work, but it was nice. She could try to think of other little details as she went along and now have to worry on one big issue at a time. Maybe in her spare time she’d think of things that they otherwise would have forgotten. It was important for them to take everything they could possibly need.

                This journey wasn’t going to be an easy one; that was for sure. Kairi knew that it was up to her to keep the boys safe, no matter that they believed that it was their duty to keep her safe. They’d be too busy worrying about her to take care of themselves; and, well, she needed them as much as they needed her. Without each other they would never survive out on the open seas or whatever came beyond them. They were all important pieces in this little idea. She was glad to be a part of their big adventure; she was glad that they weren’t leaving her behind.

0o0o0

                The materials were collected and the raft was nearly complete. Now it was late in the day and there was nothing to do but watch the setting sun. They sat on the small offset island close to the shore that stood higher than the rest. Kairi and Sora were perched atop an angled tree and Riku leaned against it. It was a quiet evening. The gulls were calling softly in the distance and the waves were gently lapping against the shore. A feeling of peace surrounded them.

                “So…” Sora began. “Kairi’s home is out there somewhere, right?”

                Kairi paused. Of all of the subjects to talk about, it kept coming back to that same one over and over. She knew that she had strengthened the desire to travel, but she didn’t want to think about that strange castle of her dreams and the dismal town destroyed below.

                “Could be,” Riku said with a vague wave of his hand. “We’ll never know by staying here.”

                “But how far could a raft take us?” Sora asked. Kairi had been wondering that too, but she hadn’t know how to approach the issue.

                “Who knows? If we have to, we’ll think of something else.” Riku shrugged.

                That wasn’t really a satisfactory answer for Kairi. How were they supposed to figure something else out while they were out at sea? What else were they supposed to do if they got lost? But… she wouldn’t voice those concerns. Those worries, those hesitations… she couldn’t let them stop her.

                “I’ve just…” Riku sighed. “I’ve always wondered what was out there beyond our islands. Surely there’s something. And if there is, why did we end up here of all places? I have to find out.”

                “Why do you have to know?” Sora asked. “I’m looking forward to this journey, don’t get me wrong; I just don’t quite understand the pressure.”

                Riku was silent for a minute. He shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s something that I have to do. Sitting here won’t change anything.”

                “You’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, haven’t you?” Kairi asked him.

                “Thanks to you. If you hadn’t come here, I never would have thought of any of this,” he said. “Thanks, Kairi.”

                “You’re… you’re welcome?” Kairi said. She was shocked. She had thought that this journey was something that Riku and Sora had been planning forever. To know that she had triggered all of this contemplation was bizarre. She hadn’t meant to; if her very existence on this island had made the difference, then it was more important than ever for you to go along on this trip. She didn’t want them getting hurt for her sake.

                “Say Riku; what do you think is out there?” Sora asked.

                “I have no idea,” he admitted. “That’s part of why it’s so exciting. It’s all a mystery for us to uncover. I don’t know what we’ll do if we get to another world, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes. And if the raft won’t take us all the way, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

                “We’ve just got to manage to keep it a secret for a few more days,” Sora said, “or else our parents will find out and it will never happen.”

                “Don’t worry about that,” Riku said. “Things will work out. This journey is going to happen; one way or another.”

                Kairi stood up. “Riku’s right; worrying will do nothing. What comes will come, and we’ll deal with it when it happens. She turned to them and smiled. “But you don’t have to worry. We’ve stayed quiet for this long, a few more days won’t be that much harder.”

                Sora smiled. “Right!”

                Riku laughed. “You make it sound so hopeful. Thanks, Kairi.”

                “You’re welcome.” She stretched her arms over her head. “I’m going home. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!”

                “Right!” Sora stood up. “We should head home too,” he told Riku. Riku nodded.

                They all headed out to sleep and prepare for what would be another long day ahead.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

    The raft was complete. Now there was nothing left to do but gather supplies, and that was simple enough. The task wouldn’t take the entire day, and Kairi had something that she wanted to get done in the time she had to spare. It was a simple project, and surely a superstitious one at that. A good luck charm. She intended to get one made for each of them, but things had been so busy that it hadn’t happened. Maybe in this day she could get at least one of them made. She doubted there was time for three.

    It was silly anyway! It didn’t matter in the end what she made. A simple lucky charm wouldn’t guarantee their safety. The only thing that would keep them safe for sure was to stick together. And they would stay together. No stupid dream was going to predict the future. They were only plaguing her because of the worry and stress that she kept telling the boys to dispel. She should do the same herself, she supposed, but that was easier said than done. She really should give them credit for trying. Especially Sora was having a hard time with getting his mind worked around this whole thing. Kairi imagined that he was having more trouble at the thought of leaving his home behind than he let one. And she couldn’t blame him. She was having her own misgivings.

    Tasks had been set out and each of them was working on them. Kairi wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Part of her really did feel like she was intruding by going with Riku and Sora. It might do them some good to be alone for a little while, but, well, she wanted to go now too and wasn’t going to stay behind just for their sakes.

    This journey was approaching too quickly. Time was moving too fast, and Kairi couldn’t help but feel like she would be leaving everything behind for good. Surely there was more to it than that. Surely this quest would be temporary. Yes, everything was going to work out in the end. They would have their fun little adventure and then they’d return back home. That was how it was going to be, and things would turn out fine. She had nothing to worry about.

    She leaned against the beam of the raft; it was quite sturdily made. She had her seashells in hand and was sewing them carefully together to form the charm. It was a simple charm; five shells arranged in the shape of a star. It didn’t take much time to make.

    Maybe this journey would be like that charm; something that brought the three of them closer together, something simpler than would be expected and quicker than anticipated. Everything was going to be alright. Together, they could make it through anything.

    “Kairi! Did you get your stuff gathered yet?” Sora asked her as he ran up to the raft with his arms full of items.

    Kairi smiled and pointed to her cache sitting on the raft. “Yes. I finished a while ago.”

    “Have you seen Riku?” Sora wondered. “I didn’t see him on the other side of the island. I wonder where he is.”

    “Hmm… Last I saw him he was on the other side of the broken bridge,” she said. “He might still be there. You should go check it out.”

    “Are you guys talking about me?” Riku interrupted the conversation, carrying his assigned supplies.

    “Yes, actually!” Sora said. “I hadn’t seen you since we got here, but I see you’ve been busy too.”

    “Uh-huh,” Riku said. He sat down his items. “That looks like everything. We got done pretty quickly today.”

    Kairi nodded. “That means we have the rest of the day to relax! Let’s take advantage of that. We’re going to be busy from here on out, you know.”

    Riku and Sora looked over at each other and grinned. “How about a race?” Sora suggested. “Kairi can judge!”

    “Really? A race?” Riku laughed like he thought it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard, causing Sora’s face to fall; but then he grinned. “You’re on.”

    Kairi smiled. It was good to see them acting closer to each other again. It had been an awkward few weeks to watch. Their interactions had been so bizarre; they had developed a rivalry of sorts for some reason, and it seemed to be driving them apart. This race was normal, and it was one of the last times they’d have anything normal together for a while. “Okay, let’s go to the other side of the broken bridge. Race to the star tree and back, right? Same as usual.”

    Sora nodded. They all rushed to the mentioned location.

0o0o0

    A long day of racing and other contests had come and passed. They were all very tired. “It’s been good to spend time together like this,” Kairi told the boys. “I know we’ll be around each other from here on out, but one last normal day; that was nice.” They reached the dock.

    Riku nodded and smiled. “Well… I’m going to head back to the main island. Are you two coming yet?”

    “Not just yet,” Kairi said with a shrug. “I’d like to watch the sunset from this dock one last time.”

    “You make it sound like the end,” Riku worried. “We’ll be back.”

    “I know,” Kairi said. “I wasn’t trying to sound like that.”

    “I think I’ll stay for a while too,” Sora said. “Watching the sunset sounds nice.”

    “Sorry to rush off and leave you guys then,” Riku said. “But I promised my mom that I’d be back for dinner tonight, and even though she doesn’t know I’m leaving, I feel like I need to do this for her.” He grinned. “See you all tomorrow, bright and early. Then we’ll head out!”

    “Right!” Sora said with a grin.

    Once Riku had left it was just Sora and Kairi. They settled on the dock, legs dangling over the water as they stared out at the setting sun.

    Sora fell silent after a moment and his gaze dropped down to the sea. Kairi looked over. She was worried by his behavior. “Sora? What’s wrong?”

    “I’m just so… worried about his plan,” he admitted. “And there hasn’t been anyone who I thought would listen. Riku is too caught up in this trip, and you’re always telling me not to worry.” He shook his head. “And this is all a secret, so there’s no one else to talk to!”

    Kairi paused. Had she really been invalidating him so much? That wasn’t her intent. She just wanted to help. “I’m sorry, Sora. I didn’t know you felt like I was ignoring you… You can tell me anything.”

    Sora paused and looked down at the water. “It’s just… Riku has been acting so strange lately, and not just about this trip. I feel like he’s leaving us behind even though he’s bringing us along, you know?” He frowned. “And I can’t even talk to him about it to find out what’s up! He always changes the subject. This journey… I feel like I _have_ to go. I can’t let him run off on his own, and you don’t need to watch him alone.”

    “You don’t want to come?” Kairi asked in surprise.

    Sora shook his head. “That’s not it exactly…”

    Kairi paused. He was worried about how Riku had been acting, but from her perspective, there was nothing to be worried about. She probably saw less than he did though… “I wouldn’t worry too much about how Riku has been acting. He’s figuring out his own things, but he’s not leaving you behind,” Kairi assured. “I don’t know what’s going on, but with us with him, he’ll be fine, I promise. We all will!”

    Sora paused in thought before slowly nodding. “You’re the best Kairi. I should have known. I trust you and Riku more than anyone else.”

    “Everything will be great! So let’s just go tomorrow and not let the worries slow us down.” Kairi smiled over at him. “We’ll keep Riku in check. Besides, who knows what’s going through his mind? It could be nothing to worry about at all… maybe he’s worried too. That would be natural. We are leaving home, after all.”

    Sora nodded and smiled back. “Yeah. We’ll make through together!”

    They both looked back out at the setting sun. Tomorrow was a day that everything was going to change, but Kairi had Riku and Sora by her side. Together they could do anything. As long as they were together, everything was going to be alright.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

    Back at home that evening Kairi was sitting out on her front porch when she heard thunder. She looked out over the water and saw a giant storm looming. That was a little unusual. There had been nothing in the forecast to point towards anything of the sort. It worried her a bit… She hoped it wasn’t’ still storming tomorrow when they were to set out on their journey. They had the raft ready; it would be a shame not to use it.

    “Wait: the raft!” Kairi leapt to her feet. She had to get there and secure it. They hadn’t protected it very well since there had been no inkling of bad weather. This storm was a surprise. She had to make sure it was safe! She was sure that Riku and Sora were probably having the same thoughts, but in case they decided that the others were going to go to the island to protect their vessel she had to make sure that someone actually ended up going. She started running down the long stone path to her home and to the road, through the town and to the docks.

0o0o0

    She jumped out of her boat onto the dock on the little island. She looked around; the storm was getting worse. It had been foolish of her to come here in this storm. She might not make it back on the stormy sea, so she might have to set up shop in the seaside shack if necessary. She didn’t want to get hurt. She looked at the edge of the dock. Two other boats were there; Riku and Sora were here on the island too. Of course they were! They wouldn’t leave the raft behind. She should have known better than that.

    But where were they? The sky was getting darker and darker…. When she looked up, it didn’t look like a normal storm anymore. The lightning was an eerie purple amongst a swirling vortex of black that was bringing the violet electricity further inside of it. The turbulent energy was growing closer and closer together. What was happening? And why… why did it seem like everything was getting sucked in, like a black hole?

    Her objective just changed; screw the raft. She needed to find Riku and Sora. The raft could wait; they could build another raft another day. But if they were out here in this bizarre situation too, she needed to make sure they were safe, and together they could huddle in the shack and hope that the world didn’t fall apart around them.

    Why did her nightmares have to seem to be right? Why was it all coming to this? She could only hope that the rest wouldn’t come to be. She could only hope that she would find them and that they could stay together.

    Where would they be? Riku; Riku might go to the little island separated from the rest, connected by the bridge. That would be the first place to start. She ran for it, through the shack and out to the bridge. The bridge was barely still connecting the two bits of land. There was nothing to stop her from crossing the bridge. She saw him there. Riku was standing in the middle of the island, staring out into the sea.

    “Riku!” she called to him.

    “This is it, Kairi,” he said. He turned around and faced her. “This is our only chance! We can get off of this island; we can go see other worlds!”

    “Huh? Weren’t we already planning to?” Kairi wondered. “That was what the raft was for, right?”

    “You don’t understand. The door has been opened. This world has been connected to the other worlds. We can really go now!” He looked so happy, so excited… and there was something wild about his eyes.

    “Riku, we can’t leave right now; it’s too dangerous!” Kairi protested. “Didn’t you see how turbulent that sea was? We were crazy coming out here in the first place! It’s not safe.”

    “Come on, Kairi, you have to listen to me. This is our only chance!” Riku shook his head. “It’s too late for this world. We’re going to disappear along with it if we don’t go.”

    “What about Sora?” Kairi demanded. “We can’t leave him behind.”

    “He’s coming too!” he said. “We can’t let fear stop us.” He shook his head. “I’m not afraid of the darkness!” He extended a hand towards her.

    Kairi’s eyes widened as she saw something underneath him. There was swirling black and purple pool. “Riku, no!” She rushed towards him; but she was stopped by darkness too. “No!” She tried to fight against it to get to her friend, but she was being overcome. The darkness crawling over her body…

    No! It couldn’t end like this! She wouldn’t let it! She struggled against the pull beneath her.

    Suddenly there was a bright and powerful light, and a weapon in her hands. “The Keyblade?” she questioned as she looked down at the pink and flowery weapon. “But how? Riku, did you see—“ She looked up, and Riku was gone. “Riku?” She rushed to where he had been and looked around frantically. “Riku, no!” She felt tears well up in her eyes. Riku had been drawn into the darkness below. Was he gone? “Riku…”

    She shook her head and tried to snap out of it. No! She had to find Sora. She couldn’t let herself get so upset that she forgot that she had to find him too. Where would he be?

    She looked around the island and spotted something strange; the entrance to the Secret Place was gone. Instead there was a bright and shining door. “Huh?” She knew there was no place more obvious to look… So she ran towards it.

0o0o0

    She ran down the winding tunnel and into the cave. Sora stood in front of her staring at the strange brown door that had always been in the back of the cave. This time, there was a strange giant golden keyhole in it. “Sora!” she called out to him. “There you are. Riku; we have to find Riku!”

    Sora slowly turned to face her, but his eyes were dull and blank. He started to walk towards her, but the door; it burst open, and in the strong wind, Sora was blown towards her.

    “Sora!” She tried to run against the wind to catch him, even knowing that she would be knocked over by his weight. She wasn’t going to lose him too!

    But when he hit her, there was another burst of light and he was gone. “Sora?” she called out when she noticed. “Sora, where are you?” The wind grew stronger and she was blown against the cave walls, bouncing uncomfortably off of them and out of the Secret Place.

    She landed in the sand with a thud. “Sora? Riku?” She stood up and looked around frantically. “Where are you guys?” She was afraid; she was so afraid that she couldn’t stand it. Her heart was thudding painfully in her chest, she felt sick. Her friends… they were gone, and she didn’t know where to. She was worried about them and there was nothing she could do. Riku had gone into the darkness. Sora… she had no idea what had happened to him. “Don’t… don’t leave me alone!”

    Suddenly things came into focus, her panic subsiding into a different adrenaline source. The world around her… she was surrounded in a small area of land that seemed to be all that remained; and on the center of this land-mass was a creature, a giant monster made of the shadows… one like was in that dream…

    She clenched her teeth, sniffled one more time, wiped away her tears, and faced the creature looming above her. “You… You did this!” She rushed towards the monster. “It was you that destroyed the islands! How could you?” But she knew it wasn’t this creature alone. There was far more to it than that; the darkness itself was what caused her world to fall apart, every bit and piece fading away into dust.

    The wind was too strong. She didn’t even make it close to the creature before she had to grab on to the nearest board wedged into the ground. She was being pulled up into the air, and when she turned to look, the creature was being sucked up as well. “No!” This wasn’t happening. Her nightmares couldn’t be real; they couldn’t be!

    She couldn’t have just lost her two best friends on this fateful night!

    The darkness… She couldn’t let it win. She’d get them back! She’d make them safe! She’d…

    Her fingers slipped. “No!” she screamed as she was sucked into the air. Her back hit something hard and everything went black as the world was sucked up in one final slurp behind her.

0o0o0

(Elsewhere)

    This was so perfect. It was amazing to see what a difference the tiniest little adjustment could make. Different chains of realities; what was next? It was marvelous to see how it was affecting the princess to lose her friends rather than vice versa, how _strong_ it was making her. No one would ever expected this kind of strength from her.

    But Solace knew better than to fall too deeply into the temptations of this altered timeline. If no one were to notice, then he needed to be careful about what he threw in there. Yes, this simple change would be the last he made; this singular change should make all of the difference necessary. No one could know the difference.

    Oh, but this was so much fun, and it had been such a long time since he had any fun at all.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

That had been such a horrible dream; why had she had it this time, and why wasn’t it a nightmare like usual, jerking her awake and forcing her to hold in a scream of terror? And… why didn’t she feel her plush mattress and pillows beneath her?

Kairi cracked her eyes open expecting to see rays of bright sunlight shining in through her windows between her wispy curtains to gently wake her into another day of summer vacation… but instead she saw only shadows and solid wood several feet in front of her. “Another dream,” she decided and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and sighed. Her back really hurt. That was odd. Pain was usually at a minimum in her sleepy state.

Suddenly she heard breathing and the sound of something sniffling. She opened her eyes and was face to face with a large yellow dog. “Oh!” she startled. The dog came closer and licked her face. “Wait… I’m not asleep!” She sat straight up and looked around. She returned her gaze to the dog staring at her intently. “Where are we?” she asked. It lifted its ear like it heard something before turning to run off. “Hey, wait!” she tried. But the dog was gone.

She stood up and looked around once more. On two sides of her were large wooden buildings with faint light shining through closed windows. Behind her was a fence that blocked off the end of the path; a chilly alleyway, full of broken boxes and barrels. “How did I end up here?” she wondered. She looked up at the sky and saw stars. The sky was a strange shade of shadowy blue, unfamiliar and polluted by many city lights, much unlike her peaceful island home undefiled by such crude artificial lighting. “I’ve never seen any buildings like this on the islands…”

She walked towards the open end of the alleyway. The ground was covered in cobblestones that thudded strangely under her shoes. The surface was uneven and made her ankles move around to keep her balance. The paving stones were a grey-brown and almost blended in with the wooden structures surrounding her.

She turned the corner between more buildings and saw an open area in the distance. This wasn’t right. She’d never seen an area paved so completely. All around her was cobblestone and wood and when she reached the edge of the buildings, the town opened up and she saw what she never expected. “I’m in another world!” she realized. She shook her head. “This isn’t a dream!” She smiled. “But… how am I here?”

She looked around and saw people milling about in the courtyard, but she decided not to go down the staircase just yet. To her left was a large building that had a giant neon sign with yellow letters that announced. “Accessories”. She looked around once more. “I wonder if Riku and Sora went to explore.” That had to be how she was here, right? For some reason she wasn’t remembering it, but they must have gotten on that raft and set out on their voyage. Somehow they had ended up in this strange world. It was great!

But then it hit her. That dream; that nightmare that she hadn’t woken up from… even when it got to the worst point. Her friends… The islands… That wasn’t a dream, was it? Riku and Sora… She had watched them disappear. They weren’t here with her. She was alone. “No…” She looked around again. “My friends… my home…” The darkness had overtaken everything. Her world had fallen into the darkness… and her friends; well, they went with it. And not just Riku and Sora. Her mom. Her classmates. Everyone else was just… gone without a trace!

Whatever had happened, there had been no way she could have stopped it. But now she was lost and alone and something had taken it all from her! She had lost everything, she knew it. Whoever had done this, whatever had caused this to be… She would get them back! She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know why all of this had happened in the first place. But there had to be some way to bring back her home and the people she cared about. This wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be!

She mindlessly turned and faced the green doors of the building beside her. She wondered if the store was open. Probably not, given that it was nighttime, but she tested the doors, and they did push open.

She looked around the bright, white room. In the center were some glass display cases filled with accessories such a jewelry and watches. To the right were black leather benches. And to her left was a green counter with a crystal inside a box atop it. Behind the counter stood a tall blond man. He turned when he heard her. “How can I help you?” he asked. He studied her. “Oh, it’s just a kid.”

“Hey! I’m not just a kid,” Kairi protested. She walked over. He seemed trustworthy… “Um…” She looked down. “Can you tell me where I am?”

“You don’t know where you are?” he asked. She looked up and saw him shake his head. “Not another one…” She looked at him expectantly. “You’re in Traverse Town, kid.”

“Traverse Town…” Kairi pondered. She’d never heard of it. That had to confirm that she wasn’t on her islands. Her mother knew all of the areas of her homeland, and she often talked about her work; no, this Traverse Town was not her world. “Okay, thanks.” She smiled. “I don’t want to be a bother. I don’t have any munny to purchase anything, so I’ll go now.”

“Wait!” the man said. “If you’re lost, you should stay here for a while. Maybe I can help you figure out what’s going on.” He looked sympathetic, like he had once been in the same situation and couldn’t stand to see a child in it now.

Kairi reluctantly came over. “My world… it’s gone, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know for sure,” the man said, “but Traverse Town is a place that many people end up when their worlds are destroyed.”

“Destroyed.” Kairi took a minute to take that in. Destroyed. Her world was destroyed. “There were these creatures, and this black hole thing, and—“ She took a deep breath to calm down. There was no use in panicking. She needed to keep herself together. “And now my family, my friends, my island… they’re gone, aren’t they?”

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he asked, “What’s your name, kid?”

“Huh?” She was drawn out of her thoughts. “My name is Kairi. What’s yours?”

“Cid.” He nodded. “I haven’t seen any other newcomers in a while; but I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

“Thank you, Cid. If you see someone named Riku, or someone named Sora, could you tell them that you saw me?” she asked.

“Of course.” He paused. “In the meantime, why don’t you take a look around? You might find them.”

“Yeah! That’s a good idea!” Kairi tried to smile.

“But I should warn you; there are creatures about,” Cid said. “They are called ‘heartless’. They likely are the creatures you saw back at home. They are very dangerous. They can be vicious in their attacks.”

“Oh.” Kairi looked down. “So the shadowy things with the glowing eyes are here too?”

“Yes, though there are other kinds as well. The glowing eyes are the best way to tell.” He hesitated. “Do you have any way to defend yourself?”

Kairi paused. “I have a sword,” she said. She chose not to summon her Keyblade to show him. Though Cid seemed trustworthy, she felt that it was best to keep as few people as possible informed of its existence. “It’s magic, so it’s not visible right now.”

Cid looked at her like she had three heads. “Are you sure you didn’t get a knock on the head somewhere along the line?”

“Well, technically I think I did hit my head on something, but I really do have a way to fight!” She crossed her arms. “Don’t worry about me! I’m just going to go look around!”

“Come back here when you’re done; let me know you’re safe,” he requested. “Be careful out there, Kairi.”

Kairi nodded. “Right. I will be.”

She crossed the room and walked out of the doors and into the strange new world that she had been thrown into. Maybe Riku and Sora were somewhere around here. Maybe they weren’t gone too. She could only hope. If she could find them, they could help her. Together, they could do anything!

0o0o0

“Second District” read the sign over the gargantuan wooden doors at the end of the path. Kairi walked up to them and took a deep breath. Why was she so anxious? There was nothing to be afraid of. Cid said that there may be monsters beyond that door, but there was no way to tell for sure until she went through. Besides, she could fight, right? She knew the basics and had watched it done enough times that she could figure it out more or less. She had the Keyblade…

Wait; did she even know how to summon the Keyblade when she needed it? She hesitantly held out her arm in front of her, hoping that there would be a shimmer of light and the weapon would appear in her hands. It took a moment, but it did happen; she took the opportunity to further examine the weapon that she had spent so little time looking at. Flowery, fancy, pink—it was annoying in that manner. A weapon didn’t need to be pretty! But… it was kind of nice that it was. The delicate flower patterns were sharp-edged; aesthetically pleasing or not, it was obvious that this sword could do damage. Pink and gold and blue; it was beautiful but a little too girly for her taste, but who was she to complain about a weapon that was sure to help her defend herself in the long run? Beggars can’t be choosers, so they say.

She took a moment to familiarize herself with the weight in her hand before she tried to send it away. It wasn’t an excessively heavy object contrary to seeming to be made of metal. She was sure it would be a workout to swing it around, but she knew she could adjust. It wasn’t like she was going to hurt herself with it, but she would build up muscle if she had to do much fighting… which she hoped that she didn’t. She didn’t know how. She hadn’t spent her summers on the play island with wooden swords constantly fighting like Riku and Sora. She’d picked up the toy weapons before a fought a bit, and well at that; but she didn’t have the same experience since she had no interest in fighting.

She settled her arm to her side and relaxed her wrist. The Keyblade vanished in a flash of light much like it had appeared from. She had to wonder where it had gone, but she had no way of finding out, nor much time for curiosity to take over. She had to get searching for her friends. Riku and Sora were out there somewhere, and they were waiting for her. She had to find them before they got into trouble. That was the entire reason she was going along on the trip, after all. She was sure they were safe and together and just needed to be collected so that they could figure out what was going on around here and find out how to get their home back.

She took a deep breath and stepped forward to push open the weighty doors and enter into the district beyond. She was sure she would find them; if not here, then she would find some other way to search elsewhere! Riku and Sora… they were waiting for her. Even if they were gone with the world… even if she needed to get them back alone, she would.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A search of the next two districts, another alleyway, a hotel, and a house full of Dalmatians turned up no sign of her friends, or anyone else for that matter. Cid had said that the districts were dangerous, but she hadn’t run into any trouble; she hadn’t seen a single heartless as she went on her way. Now all that remained was to go back and check in with Cid and wait a while for them to show up; if they didn’t, then she’d formulate a plan to search other worlds. If she couldn’t find her friends then maybe she could at least find out what had happened to her world. If she figured that out she knew that she’d be one step closer to getting everything back to normal. She hadn’t been gone a day yet and she was already longing to hear the waves lapping against the shore and see the bright sun above burning down on her head.

_ “Don’t worry, Kairi. We’ll figure this out.” _

Kairi gasped and turned around. “Sora!” she cried in surprise… but when she frantically looked around he wasn’t there. “Sora, if you’re hiding somewhere, it’s not funny!”

There was nothing to hide behind and now everything had fallen silent but the beating of her blood through her veins pounding in her ears. Sora wasn’t there. Hallucinating. She was already hallucinating.  She had been through a lot of emotional distress. It would fade away. When she calmed down, things would come back into place… but Sora had always been a particularly strong person to rely on. It made sense to hear his voice reassuring her. Yes, if she was going to hallucinate, this one made sense. At least there was that.

She took a few more steps forward before something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She turned around to face it… a heartless! One of the creatures with yellow eyes that melded into the shadows and ran around quickly… and it wasn’t alone.

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and got ready and when they started rushing toward her, she swung her sword and they dispersed into the darkness in the air. More came, and she did the same, dodging a few hits here and there, taking a few scratches, but nothing serious. Once they were all gone, she looked around again; no sign of anything else. She sent her Keyblade away and started walking forward again.

“What’s a kid like you doing with a Keyblade?”

Kairi whipped around. There stood a tall man with brown hair clad in black leather. On his shoulder he held a large sword. “Oh, um, hello! Where did you come from?” she asked nervously. “I didn’t notice you there the last time I looked.”

He scoffed. “You need to be more observant if you’re going to have one of those,” he said. She noted he had a large scar on his face, cutting across the bridge of his nose from above his right eye and down to his left cheek bone. Very distinctive; she had the feeling that his face was one that she wouldn’t forget seeing. He gave off an air of danger, and Kairi was a bit wary. “A Keyblade will draw the heartless to you like moths to a flame.” He walked towards her.

She took a step away from him. “Oh; and how would you know that?” she asked.

“Come with me and we can talk about it. Maybe I can explain a little bit about what’s going on.”

Kairi considered. The more she was in his presence, the less afraid she felt. She studied him closely one more time before walking over to him. “Okay. I’ll come with you… If you tell me your name.”

“It’s Leon,” he replied.

0o0o0

He led her into a small empty house in the third district. Within it were two women standing near each other chatting, one of a soft build with long caramel hair in a braid with a bow in it, clad in a simple pink dress; the other was thinner and more angular with short mocha brown hair wearing  a green crop-top and khaki short-shorts. They both looked up when they heard the door open and watched as Leon led her in.

“Oh! Hello,” the pink-clad woman said. There was concern in her aqua eyes and surprise in her voice.

“Hi,” Kairi said nervously.

“This is Kairi,” Leon introduced her. “She was wandering around town and fought heartless with her Keyblade.”

“A Keyblade?” the short-haired woman asked.

“Kairi, this is Yuffie and Aerith,” Leon continued.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Kairi told them. She looked around the room. Everything was covered in white sheets; it was obvious that no one was living here, so why were they all meeting here? But most importantly, “Are we going to talk about how you know about the Keyblade?”

“The Keyblade is the heartless’ greatest enemy,” Aerith explained. “As long as you hold you, they will follow you, drawn to the light in your heart.”

“The light… in my heart?” Kairi wondered. “Is that what the heartless are after? The light in people’s hearts?”

“Yes,” Aerith said with a nod, “or at least, that’s what the reports of Ansem the Wise claim.”

Yuffie stood up straighter from where she had been leaning against the wall. “So you need to know how to defend yourself if you’re going to be lugging one of those things around.” She sighed. “It figures that you have to have a Keyblade to defeat the heartless and yet it puts you in more danger by drawing them near!”

“Great,” Kairi said sarcastically. “So wherever I go, these monsters are going to follow me.”

“Unfortunately,” Leon acknowledged. “And I saw you fighting; though you know how to defend yourself in a pinch, it’s obvious that you’re not a skilled fighter.”

“Hey!” Kairi protested. “I’m a fine fighter, thank you. I just haven’t had much practice is all.”

“He means no offense,” Aerith assured. “I’m sure he’s simply concerned.”

“Well, I can manage on my own until I find my friends!” she said. “Once I find Riku and Sora, they’ll be able to help me! Together we can do anything!” She put her hand over her heart. “I just don’t know where they are…”

“They could be anywhere, if your world was destroyed,” Leon said. “When worlds are overtaken by darkness, those who survive are scattered across the universe. More than likely, they’re okay; but I don’t know where to tell you to start looking if they didn’t end up here too.”

“And they didn’t,” Kairi said. “I’ve already looked. I was going to wait a little bit; maybe a day or so; and hope that they show up. If they don’t… well, I’ll just have to find a way to get out there and search!”

“It’s dangerous in other worlds,” Aerith said, “and even more so to travel between them. You have no way to safely travel alone.” She paused. “But I spoke with two people earlier; they were looking for their king… and a Keyblade.”

“Why were they looking for a Keyblade?” Kairi wondered. “Is everyone looking for one? You guys, the heartless, these other people; are there more?”

“Hard to say,” Leon said. “Hopefully not very many people know about them. It could be dangerous.”

“The worlds were not meant to be connected,” Yuffie said, “but now they are. People aren’t supposed to know about worlds beyond their own. That’s supposed to be the stuff of myths and legends; things thrown to the side by adults as fantasy. Most people wouldn’t know about Keyblades, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“Donald and Goofy only know about the Keyblade because their king told them,” Aerith reassured. “They are good people. They have no ill intentions… perhaps you could go with them.”

Kairi paused. “Can they travel safely between worlds?” she asked.

Aerith nodded. “Yes.”

“I have to find Riku and Sora; if it’s the only way I can search, then I’d at least be willing to meet them!” Kairi decided. “So where are they?”

“They went out to search the town for themselves,” Aerith explained.

“Oh.” Kairi deflated. “Are they coming back?”

Aerith shook her head. “They hadn’t found what they were searching for here, so they were going to go elsewhere after a quick survey of the town.”

“Well, I guess I’d better get out there and look for them then!” Kairi decided. “I can’t let them leave without me!” She shook her head. “Thank you for talking to me,” she said, though she didn’t really know much more than when she came in. “I need to get moving.”

“Be careful, Kairi,” Yuffie said. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Kairi promised with a grin. “What do they look like?”

“They are very… strange looking,” Aerith said. “You’ll know them when you see them.”

“Okay…” Kairi waved and turned and headed towards the door. “Take care of yourselves. Maybe I’ll see you around!”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

    ‘Strange looking’… that was quite the vague description. These strangers, Donald and Goofy were ‘strange looking’ and ‘she’d know them when she saw them’. She hoped that was the case, because she wasn’t really fond of going up to random strangers and asking them their names. That would be beyond awkward and uncomfortable.

    Kairi looked around from her high-up vantage point overlooking the third district. She didn’t spot anyone at first, so she decided to move along to the Second District. She’d work through there to the First District, and if she saw no sign either place it must mean they had left. She needed to check back in with Cid anyway, so it made sense to do it in this order even with the door to the First District being nearby.

    She walked through the doorway to the Second District. Some heartless appeared here and there, but she managed to fight them off with no problem; practice really seemed to improve her skills in this case. She heard a commotion nearby, so she started running towards the source… Not necessarily the brightest move, she knew, but she needed to be brave now. If she was going to find Riku and Sora, she knew that she couldn’t let herself be afraid for long.

    She rounded the corner and saw something unexpected: what appeared to be some kind of giant purple robot heartless attacking a duck and a humanoid dog. They were fighting well, but having some trouble on their own. “Yikes!” One of them yelled out as he barely dodged an attack. Strange looking people… These did seem to be people. Maybe they were Donald and Goofy. Whether they were or not, she had to help them since they were struggling.

    She summoned her Keyblade and ran forward. “Look out!” she called to the duck as one of the robotic arms swung in his direction. He dodged out of the way.

    “Who are you?” he asked in a voice that honestly made Kairi want to laugh upon hearing it, but she didn’t, she needed to concentrate on the battle.

    “We can talk once this thing is handled!” she said. She dashed towards one of the feet and started attacking it, carefully dodging the attacks as they came. She glanced back and saw that the two resumed fighting as well. She was thankful for that; she didn’t think she could take on such a massive foe on her own.

    If these people were Donald and Goofy, they weren’t too shabby of fighters. They weren’t great, perhaps not the most well versed, but they could defend themselves and each other, which was all that she really needed; a few extra eyes would be worth more than anyone could have imagined. They weren’t taking too many hits either, and that was a relief.

    As Kairi hit the leg one more time, she was shocked to see it burst away into nothing leaving the creature standing—or rather, floating—on one leg with the arms above moving independently from the rest of the body, swooshing through the air and coming right at her. She barely dodged out of the way of the attack. “Hey guys, I think the limbs are separate!” she yelled. “Why don’t you guys focus on them and I’ll go for the center?”

    “We don’t even know who you are!” the duck protested. “Why should we listen to you?”

    “Donald, I think she’s right,” the other said. “We should listen. She’s helping us fight, after all.”

    Donald? This had to be them ten! Donald looked annoyed at who was presumably Goofy’s suggestion, but he dodged out of the way of an attack before redirecting his attacks to focus on one limb at a time rather than randomly hitting whatever was near. He was shooting magic spells; fire and electricity and ice had been going in all directions before, but now they were aimed in one place. Kairi tried not to let herself be distracted and instead focus on the core of the heartless in front of her.

    She took a few hits here and there but tried not to yell out in pain as she was slammed against the ground and just get back up to her feet instead. No use crying. She had to fight no matter how much it hurt; there was no way around it. Maybe it would have been wiser for her to have invested her time in learning to fight, but she had no interest before. Fighting had always seemed silly and pointless before; now she thought that she had been ignorant to feel that way. Fighting was apparently an important skill in worlds outside of her own, and now that she was there, she had no one to defend her. She had to learn for herself.

    But she thought she was doing remarkably well regardless of the few hits she took and the fact that she was feeling pretty awful at the moment from a rough knock to the head. Fighting something more than ten times your size seemed to have that as a side effect, unfortunately. At least there was a large area to work with. She wasn’t running into walls too easily, though that did happen a few times as the heartless would swing its arms wildly in a cyclone pattern.

    She noticed that the attacks were slowing; when she took a moment to observe her surroundings, she saw that the limbs were missing and that her allies were now focusing on the center as well. A few more well-placed hits and it churned to a halt. It sputtered a few times and the head collapsed into the armor before a glowing light came out of it and a sparkling heart came from the hole where it had been. The heart slowly floated up into the sky and out of view.

    Kairi sighed in relief. It was gone. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths and tried to work through the pain in her head and back. Getting pummeled into the ground certainly wasn’t something that she particularly wanted to repeat. “Ow,” she whispered. Everything stung and ached and rang in a piercing pain.

    “Here!” she heard the dog yell. She looked up just in time to catch a bottle in her hands.

    “Huh?” She looked at it.

    “Drink it! It’ll make you feel better!” he said.

    Kairi had no reason not to trust him, so she did. Immediately the pain subsided, not even a dull ache remaining. She smiled at him. “Thanks!” she said.

    “No problem. Thank you for helping us fight that thing,” he said. “The name’s Goofy.”

    “Kairi,” she replied with a laugh. “If you’re Goofy, and I heard you call him Donald, then I was looking for you guys!”

    “Looking for us?” Goofy sounded puzzled.

    “That’s a Keyblade!” Donald pointed to the sword in her hand.

    Kairi nodded. “Yes. Aerith said that you guys were looking for a Keyblade. She thought that if I helped you, you might be able to help me.”

    “You’ll help us?” Goofy asked.

    “Well, that depends on what you need!” Kairi replied.

    Donald studied her. He looked less annoyed now, more relieved than anything. “We needed to find the key; then we could start looking for the king.” He walked over to her. “He asked us to find a Keyblade wielder to help him.”

    “Oh? So you’re going to be looking for him now,” she acknowledged. “That’s great, because I’m looking for two people as well! My friends…” She frowned. “My world was destroyed, and I don’t know what happened to my best friends… if I help you search, can you help me look for Riku and Sora?”

    “No.” Donald shook his head. “It’s a waste of time; we have to focus on finding the king!”

    “But Donald,” Goofy said, “we have to have the Keyblade to find him, and she’s not going to go with us unless we help her. What’s it going to hurt to look for them too?”

    “He’s right. I’m not going with you unless you agree to help me look,” Kairi said. “Aerith said that you can travel to other worlds, and I need to do that too if I’m going to find them. But if you won’t help me, if you’re just going to drag me along to find your king and present me, then I’ll find some other way.”

    Donald crossed his arms stubbornly but was visibly thinking. “Fine,” he decided. “We’ll help you look for your friends.”

    “Great!” Kairi said. “And once we find them, they’ll have to come along too!”

    Donald tapped his foot impatiently. “I never said anything about—“

    “Sounds like a plan,” Goofy interrupted.

    Kairi smiled. “Good.” She got a feeling that she needed to make sure they didn’t forget about that plan. Donald in particular seemed like someone who tended to venture more towards putting his own prerogatives before those of others. She would be cautious of him; she wasn’t afraid, but she felt like she needed to be ready to stand on her own if necessary. She wasn’t going to let herself get pushed around. “So… What do we do now? I was going to wait for a little while to see if Riku and Sora show up, but I hadn’t been expecting to find you guys. I figured you had already left. So what’s your plan?”

    “Well, we don’t have any idea where the king would be, but he isn’t here. I’d say it’s the same for your friends,” Goofy said. “We were going to go world to world until we found him.” He paused. “We can always go back and check here again later.”

    Donald was back to tapping that foot impatiently. “So we’re going to head out as soon as possible!” he insisted.

    “Hey guys; don’t forget about me!” A voice came from on Donald’s shoulder. Kairi spotted something tiny hopping up and down.

    Kairi got a little closer to see better. “Huh?” There was a cricket wearing a top hat and a suit jacket there.

    “The name’s Jiminy, Jiminy Cricket, at your service!” he said.

    “Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Jiminy,” Kairi said. She spotted the dog from earlier coming around the corner. “Oh, and is the dog with you guys too?” she asked.

    “That’s Pluto,” Goofy said.

    “Well, since everybody’s here now, let’s get going!” Donald suggested. “There’s no time to waste!”

    “I need to stop in and tell Cid what’s going on before we go,” Kairi said. “Then otherwise, I’m all for it!”

    “Fine,” Donald said. “Let’s go.”

0o0o0

(Elsewhere)

    Solace searched around the area. This was such a strange world, all thing said and done. Everything was wacky and nothing made much sense around this forest. Wonderland certainly was something, that was for sure, but he knew that would be where Kairi would go next. It was all laid out in the chains of time. Some things change, others stay the same. The fates of the others changed far less than that of the princess of the heart.

    But Solace was rather fond of the girl and her adventures. They were so fun to watch. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give a little push along the way; a little hint here and there and a little shove in the right direction. After all, there was no reason that this timeline had to be anything more terrible for its inhabitants than was destined in the original. In fact, there was no reason that things couldn’t be a little easier, a little _better._ Solace wanted to have fun, and he wanted things to be different, but that didn’t mean that he wanted to induce chaos or spread destruction.

    So no, a little box in the forest in the strange world known as Wonderland wouldn’t hurt anything. Besides, there was no going back. He had broken so many rules already, why bother with following any of them anymore?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason this story has multiple, shorter chapters per world even though the story is complete is because I know that when I’m reading, I lose my focus or get distracted by life when I’m trying to read. Having smaller chunks of chapters gives me a good point that I know I can come back to later rather than having to find my place in the middle of a chapter. I hope that it’s a reasonable assumption that others might prefer that as well.

Chapter 8

A quick stop in to talk to Cid and a crash-course introduction to what a ‘Gummi Ship’ was and they were on their way. It was a pretty dull trip; not much to see out in space contrary to what one might think. All of the stars were distant and didn’t feel any closer than they did from on the ground. Kairi couldn’t believe that Riku had really thought that a raft could take them through all of this, or even to it in the first place; it seemed so childish in hindsight, but she supposed that they were still teenagers so childish things were understandable. What they knew was the sea; they knew nothing of space or the stars… And the Lanes Between were like an ocean in a way; vast and extensive and no way to see from all directions once you got far enough away from land. She was sure it would be very lonely if she were alone, but her companions were rather noisy, or at least Donald was always arguing with Goofy when Goofy did nothing wrong. Donald just liked to bicker. She had that figured out already. Maybe he wasn’t really argumentative, and maybe it was just part of his personality to be like that.

Regardless of all of that, traveling through space was rather boring, and Kairi was very tired; she dozed off somewhere along the journey and was nudged awake by Pluto just as something new came into view; a new world. “Where are we?” she asked as she sat up and moved to look out of the cockpit.

“Who knows?” Donald said. “But we’re stopping here. The king could be anywhere!”

“And my friends could be here too!” Kairi said happily. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Be patient, we haven’t even fully approached the world yet,” Donald snapped.

Kairi crossed her arms and pursed her lips moodily. “Don’t snap at me,” she complained. “I’m just excited.” He didn’t respond, and Goofy looked saddened that they weren’t getting along, but she tried to ignore that because a sad Goofy was something that she didn’t want to think about (it was like a sad Sora.) She instead focused on studying what she could see of the world as they got closer.

It was an odd shape, somewhat rounded and somewhat squared off. From what she could see the surface was varied shades of red, but that seemed odd; perhaps that was the outside. On one side were castle towers, on the other, a forest. Between this and what she saw of Traverse Town as they left, she had to wonder what the Destiny Islands must have looked like from above; maybe one day she’d find out.

“There!” Donald said. He turned and looked at Kairi. “Now we can get out! You just need to be a little more patient!”

“You need to be a little more patient too, you know!” Kairi retorted. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. But you should! In the meantime, let’s move on from it, okay?”

Donald looked annoyed but nodded. “Fine!”

Goofy shoved his way between them to get to the door. “C’mon fellas, let’s go!”

Kairi nodded and followed. “Most of the time we can teleport from a ‘save point’ to our ship; but since we haven’t found one, we have to jump.”

“Teleportation? Jump?” Kairi worried. “You didn’t say anything about either of those things back when we left Traverse Town.”

“It’s no big deal,” Donald said. “Trust us! We’ll be able to get back up.”

Kairi hesitated but nodded. She had no choice but to trust them. “Okay then,” she said. “You go first. I need to see how this is done.”

“We’ll all go at the same time,” Goofy suggested.

“Okay, fine. On the count of three?” Kairi asked.

“One,” Goofy said.

“Two,” Donald said.

“Three!” Kairi said as they all jumped out of the ship. She tried not to scream at the sensation of plummeting towards the ground, and eventually they seemed to slow down. That seemed odd, but maybe it was normal. Donald and Goofy seemed to have a far better handle on what was going on around here with all of this traveling. Surely if something truly bizarre was happening they would let her know.

They slowly and gently landed on the ground in a small, round, red room. The crimson wallpaper had a playing-card pattern and the floor was checkered. Kairi looked around. It was so strange, but she got the feeling that she was about to encounter things far stranger than this simple room. There was an exit in front of them. She walked towards it, pausing only long enough to let Donald and Goofy catch up. They proceeded on without a word.

The next room was large and open, the walls far lighter. There was a fireplace to one side of the room, and in the center was a small round table with a single chair and two bottles on it. On the far wall was what appeared to be a tiny door with a bright yellow doorknob. Kairi walked towards it and she thought she could hear faint snoring… 

She crouched down in front of the door. It was far too small to go through, and it appeared to be the only exit to this room other than a small opening next to it, also far too tiny for them to fit through. “How are we going to get through? The door is too small,” Kairi resigned as she stood up.

“Why, you’re all simply too big!” a voice came from below.

“Whack?” Donald said in surprise. “Who said that?”

Kairi looked down at the doorway. The doorknob had eyes, its handle was a nose, and the keyhole was a mouth. “Oh, hello Mr. Doorknob…” She was trying to be undeterred by how strange this felt; after all, things like this could be commonplace. She paused. “We can’t exactly get any smaller,” she said. “What should we do?” she asked Donald and Goofy.

The Doorknob cleared its throat. “Why don’t you try the bottle on the table?” it suggested. “For now, I’m going back to sleep. Goodnight.”

“The bottle?” Kairi looked over at the table. There were two small bottles on the table filled with strange liquid. “Well… what other choice do we have? We have to search this world, right? Your king, Sora, and Riku could all be here!”

Donald tapped his foot impatiently. “You’re right,” he decided.

“Whelp, let’s give it a try!” Goofy suggested.

Kairi cautiously approached the table and picked up the bottle, carefully examining it for a moment. This made her nervous, but she had to do something. So she put it to her mouth, tipped it up, and took a small sip. Suddenly everything got very, very big, or rather, she got a lot smaller. “I’m tiny!” she said in surprise as she looked up at Donald and Goofy. They were staring in wonder. “Well? Are you guys going to drink it too?” She tried to hold up the bottle that was now larger than she, but it was far too heavy for her now miniscule body to lift.

Each in turn took the bottle and drank from it and shrank down to her size. It was so bizarre. She looked around the room and took a step forward. Heartless sprung from the ground below her. She summoned her Keyblade. “Heartless!” she said to grab her companions’ attention. They looked over.

The fight was quick and simple enough, though it was strange that these creatures came out of nowhere. “The heartless are here too?” Donald asked once they were defeated.

“But that means this world is in danger,” Goofy said.

“In danger? Like my islands were?” Kairi worried. “We have to stop it!”

“How do you propose we do that?” Donald asked irritably.

“Well, I don’t know, we’ll just have to figure that out!” Kairi said. She sighed and walked over to the doorknob. He was sound asleep. “Mr. Doorknob?” she tried to ask, but he didn’t wake up. She looked around. She spotted the hole in the wall nearby again. “I guess we’ll have to go through there instead,” she decided. She headed that direction.

“Whatever we do,” Donald began, “if we run into trouble, we can’t meddle.”

“Meddle?”

“We can’t interfere with the lives of people from other worlds.” Donald shook his head.

“Yeah! We’ve got to protect the world border!” Goofy said.

“Order,” Donald corrected.

Kairi crossed her arms but sighed. “Okay,” she said. “Unless it’s life or death! We can’t let people get killed!”

Donald crossed his wings moodily. “Fine.”

Kairi shook her head and turned to walk through the opening.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

They emerged in a lush green area surrounded by hedges. Kairi heard voices from the other side of one of the hedges. “I’m on trial, but why?” a young girl asked.

“Her majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding.”

“This girl is the culprit. There’s no doubt about it.” A woman said. Kairi walked over to the entry to the next room. “And the reason is; because I say so, that’s why!”

“That is so unfair!” Through some cards that were evidently guards, Kairi saw a blonde girl wearing a blue dress on the stand.

“Well, have you anything to say in your defense?” the Queen of Hearts asked.

“Of course! I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong!” She crossed her arms. “You may be Queen, but that doesn’t give you the right to be so… so mean!”

“Silence! You dare defy me?”

Kairi stared for a minute. “We should help her!” she told Donald and Goofy.

“But the world order!” Donald protested.

“We’re outsiders, so that would be muddling,” Goofy said.

“Meddling!” Donald corrected.

“Oh, yeah; and that’s against the rules.” Goofy shook his head.

“The court finds the defendant guilty as charged!” The queen said. The girl gasped and took a step back. The queen continued, “For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart.” Kairi stiffened. The queen thought this girl was a heartless? “Off with her head!”

“No, no! Oh please!” the girl begged.

“I said I wasn’t letting anyone be killed!” Kairi protested. “Hold up! I know who really tried to steal your heart!” Kairi said, shoving herself through the guards.

“Kairi, no!” Donald whispered loudly, but he and Goofy followed.

“You dare interrupt my trial and question my judgement?” the Queen demanded. “I should seize you as well!”

“Wait, please listen!” Kairi said. “Haven’t you seen the strange creatures around here? Those are the ones who tried to steal your heart, not this girl!”

The Queen tapped her scepter on the platform where she stood impatiently. “Do you have any proof?”

“Well, no, but—“

“Until you can get proof, I will hold the girl here.” She pointed as she guards shoved her into a cage. “Now off with you! Get your proof soon, or off with her head!”

Kairi pursed her lips. “May I speak with her?”

“Make it quick,” the Queen snapped.

Kairi rushed over to the girl. “My name’s Kairi,” she introduced quietly.

“Hello, Kairi,” the girl said. “I’m Alice. Thank you for saving me for now. I truly did not try to steal the Queen’s heart.”

“I figured that you didn’t,” Kairi said with a smile. “Don’t worry, Alice. I’m going to try to find proof of your innocence and get you out of there!”

Donald and Goofy caught up warily. “Kairi!” Donald said in a harsh whisper. “I told you not to get involved!”

“And I said I wasn’t going to let anyone get hurt!” Kairi whispered back. “So deal with it!” She looked back over at Alice. “I’ll go now and search! You can count on me!” She turned around and faced Donald and Goofy. “Well, let’s go! The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can get back to searching for everyone!”

Donald mumbled something under his breath and Goofy rubbed the back of his head nervously. It was obvious that they didn’t like this plan, but there was no way that Kairi was going to accept anything else. They had to intervene, and they had to go and search; there was no way around it at all. They could look for Sora, Riku, and the king while they were looking for proof of Alice’s innocence. There was no reason they had to focus on only one task; well, other than there being a time limit on saving Alice.

There was an opening in the hedges to the left of where they had entered the area. Kairi went over to it and went through, not waiting for Donald and Goofy but hoping that they would follow and not leave her alone; but if she was left alone, well, she’d figure some other way out. The branches of the bush brushed against her skin as she passed through the opening, but she soon found herself in an unexpected area; a lush and colorful forest… but it was very enclosed.

“Well,” she said as she waited a moment to see if her companions would follow her, “this is where it all starts… But what proof are we going to find?” She paused in thought. “If we could bring a heartless, that would be the best proof! But that’s too dangerous…” Did heartless leave footprints or scratch marks? No, that wouldn’t work. She didn’t have a camera. But maybe one could drop a piece of something, something that wouldn’t disappear into smoke as the monster faded away…

“How are we supposed to get any proof anyway?” Donald complained. “This is useless, and now we’ve drawn attention.”

“Oh, hush,” Kairi said. “I’m trying to think of a way that we can do this!” She looked around the room. There were a few heartless patrolling around the edges of the forest. She started to run towards a group of them. Her Keyblade appeared in her hands in a flash and she attacked one. “Hey Donald! Can you capture one of them with your magic or something?”

“No,” he said as he and Goofy ran over. “What do you think you’re doing just running into a fight like that?”

“I’m trying to come up with a solution,” Kairi said. She defeated the group of heartless mostly on her own and mostly unharmed. But nothing was left behind. “Dang it! We have to figure out some way to keep a piece of them around, or to capture a full one. There’s no way around it!”

“Uh, Kairi’s right,” Goofy finally spoke up. “There’s no way we can leave Alice to die, and there’s no way that we can prove that she didn’t do anything unless we can get ahold of a heartless.”

Donald glared off into space for a moment before his expression relaxed. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll figure out some way to do this.”

“So you want to catch the shadows,” a voice said from above.

Kairi looked up at a platform of sorts and there was a pink and purple cat sitting there with a large and silly grin that she would swear hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Huh?”

“Who are you?” Donald asked.

“Who indeed?” it replied. “If you want to catch the shadows, think like one. Or not. You see, one has already been caught.” It faded away.

“Hey, wait!” Kairi said; but it was gone. “Think like the shadows…” Kairi pondered. She looked around. There had to be something around here! If they couldn’t catch a full heartless, there had to be some way to find proof around here!

She walked over to a platform that was lower to the ground. “Maybe there’s something up here!” she said. She grabbed on the edge and tried to pull herself up, but she didn’t have the upper body strength, nor the leg strength to jump that high. “What now?” she asked as she hung from the ledge.

“Here,” Goofy said, walking up behind her. “Let me help.” He grabbed her feet and pushed her up by them.

“Thanks, Goofy!” Kairi said once she was safely up on the platform. She offered a hand down. “Let’s get you two up here too.”

One by one, each of them ended up on top of the platform. Kairi looked around from the higher perspective and spotted more platforms within a reasonable distance of their current location. The gaps were small enough that even she could jump them or simply step over them. And in the distance was what looked like a gift box. “Huh?” she started that direction. “I think I see something!” she said.

She crossed the room and bent over to look at the box. She picked it up and lifted the lid. She looked inside and slammed the lid back on tightly. “There’s a heartless inside of this box!” she cheered. “How did that happen?” She remembered seeing the little black creature wriggling inside, blocked in by some kind of barrier. This was too easy, too good to be true!

Donald and Goofy ran over. “What?” Donald demanded. He lifted the lid for a moment. “How did that happen?” he asked as he slammed the lid back shut.

“I don’t know, but we need to get back down there and to the Queen of Hearts to present the evidence!” Kairi looked around for a safe way down. She saw no easy way to the ground, so she shrugged and jumped.

“No, Kairi!” Goofy called.

She landed safely and stood up. “What?” she asked. “I’ve jumped from higher.”

“Be more careful!” Donald said. “You don’t want to get hurt. Then you’ll never be able to find your friends!”

Kairi pursed her lips impatiently as they jumped down. “Let’s go! The sooner we help Alice, the sooner we can get back to searching!”

0o0o0

(Above)

Solace emerged in a pillar of light and looked over the now empty forest. He should thank the cat for giving Kairi the hint. She had found the box. That was simple enough, but it certainly had taken a long time to find it. Solace could only imagine how much things would drag on without his aid there. And the Chesire Cat was an unexpected ally. But they could be considered kindred spirits. Both wanted only to have fun, and riddles and tricks were a form of manipulation as well.

But the cat was gone, so there was no one to thank. With no business left here in this world, there was no reason not to move on to the next one.

0o0o0

Kairi led the way back to the courtroom with the box in her arms. “I found your proof!” Kairi said. She held up the box. “Would you like to see it?”

“Proof?” the queen seemed confounded at the very concept that she had managed to find anything. She paused. “Show it to me. I doubt it’s anything useful.” Kairi opened the box and showed the trapped heartless. “What was that?” the queen shouted.

“That was what tried to steal your heart,” Kairi said as she closed the box and put it to the side. “You see, it wasn’t Alice!”

The queen gritted her teeth and began to turn red. “I don’t believe you!” she said. “I will not be releasing Alice!”

“No fair! I found your proof!” Kairi protested.

“Guards! Seize them!” she ordered.

Donald and Goofy ran close to her as the cage that held Alice was covered in curtains and raised off of the ground. Cards started to charge forward at them. Kairi summoned her Keyblade; Donald and Goofy gathered their weapons as well. Kairi deflected the attacks and spotted something in the corner; it was a tower with two gears that were being pushed to raise Alice’s cage. If they could destroy that, then the cage would drop!

“Donald! Goofy! Can you hold off some of the cards while I try to destroy that thing?” She gestured to the structure.

“Huh?” Goofy said. “Sure thing, Kairi!”

Kairi dashed over to the spire and began to attack it. It fell apart relatively easy. The guards were easily held off, and once the tower was destroyed, the cage fell to the ground. Kairi rushed over there, hoping that Alice wouldn’t be hurt from the rough landing; but when the curtains opened—Alice was gone.

“Huh?” Kairi pondered.

“Where did she go?” the queen demanded. “Where is my prisoner?” She tapped her scepter impatiently. “Guards! Stop fighting and search for her!” she commanded. The guards dispersed. 

Kairi looked around frantically. It was obvious that the queen hadn’t done anything, and that left only one possible source of her disappearance; the heartless. They must have taken her while they weren’t looking. Kairi could only hope that she was okay wherever she was. Donald and Goofy came up behind her. “Where’d she go?” Donald asked.

“I don’t know,” Kairi said. She looked around the room one more time. “But she’s not in here,” she decided. She turned and faced her companions. “Say, let’s start looking for her along with everyone else. We need to make sure she’s safe and that the heartless didn’t take her!”

Donald tapped his foot impatiently, but this time he looked worried rather than annoyed. “Kairi, I don’t think you realize what we’re getting into…”

“What do you mean? She’s got to be around here somewhere!” She started walking towards the forest. “We’ll find her, and everyone else! No sweat!”

0o0o0

A search of the entire forest turned up no sign of Alice or anyone else beyond some heartless. “Where do we look now?” Kairi wondered. She sighed and turned in a circle. There was nowhere else obvious to go.

“Alice isn’t here anymore,” a voice she had heard earlier said. She turned around and saw the strange pink cat. “The shadows took her away.”

“What?” Kairi demanded. “What do you mean?”

“You won’t find her anywhere around here,” it said. It faded away.

“Dang it!” Kairi exclaimed. “How did we miss her?” She looked back and Donald and Goofy. “Do we believe some crazy pink cat?”

“We’ve looked everywhere,” Goofy admitted.

“We have nowhere left to look for Alice or the king or your friends,” Donald agreed. He looked very tired by this situation, like his annoyance had died down for the moment and left him very worried.

Kairi sighed. “I guess we’d better leave then,” she resigned. She started walking. “Let’s go back to that weird room where we started.”

0o0o0

As they walked into the bizarre room, Kairi spotted something big from the corner of her eye. “What’s that?” she asked as she saw a red, spindly-legged heartless. She summoned her Keyblade.

“Unless it attacks us, ignore it and get through here!” Donald said.

“Alright,” Kairi whispered. She started sneaking forward; but the creature turned to face them and rushed towards them. “So much for that plan!” she complained.

She rushed towards the creature as it swung its arms around wildly holding purple feather batons in their general direction. Dodging the attacks wasn’t a simple task. She searched for a weak spot; the legs were too thin to hit well, as were the arms. “I think we need to fight the center; but it’s so high!” She jumped in the air and barely was able to graze the target. She really needed to get into better shape to do all of this fighting successfully, but right now that thought didn’t help anything.

Donald cast a few spells that reached the abdomen. Kairi managed to get in a few better attacks as it crouched down, but it sprung back up and jumped far away. She thought about suggesting that they run, but the creature quickly bounded back over. She held up her Keyblade in a defensive position, and one more attack and in a puff of darkness the creature was gone.

“Whew!” Kairi breathed. She had taken fewer hits this time, gotten knocked around less; fighting with regular enemies made fighting these big things a lot easier. “Now we just have to get back up on that table!”

“What’s with all of this racket?” the doorknob asked. “Can’t anyone get any sleep around here?”

As the doorknob yawned, a glowing keyhole appeared within its mouth. Between the Keyblade and the hole, a beam of light formed. As the beam disappeared, a faint click could be heard. The doorknob fell back asleep without any sign of even noticing.

“What was that light?” Kairi asked. “And that sound… it was like a lock!”

“Who knows?” Donald said grumpily.

Kairi frowned. Donald really was a downer. “Say fellas, let’s get ourselves back to normal size so we can get out of here,” Goofy suggested.

Kairi smiled at him. “Right!”


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“This world looks interesting,” Kairi noted as they walked to the center of a sand-filled lot and stopped. A gigantic building loomed above. Columns lined the outer edges of the structure and impressive pits of fire surrounded the inner and outer walls of the closed area.

“Gawrsh, what do you think this is?” Goofy asked.

Kairi studied the building more closely. She couldn’t read the writing on the walls. “I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s some kind of an arena.” Treading carefully forward she approached the large doors.

Stepping inside the building, they ended up in a lobby type room. On a short pedestal stood a short and plump satyr messing with a sign on the wall. “Do we talk to him?” Goofy asked.

“Yeah, I’m going to try,” Kairi said. “Excuse me, sir—“

“Yeah, yeah, not now, I’m busy,” the satyr said dismissively. “We’re closed until the preliminaries start. Got to get this place ready for the games!”

“Preliminaries?” Donald asked. “Games?”

The satyr turned around looking annoyed. “If you’re interested in participating, you’ll have to pass the trials—“ He looked around before his eyes settled on Kairi. “Hey wait, you’re just a little kid!”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Kairi snapped.

“Get out of here! You don’t need to be here,” the satyr snapped. “Go on, scram!”

Kairi turned around and rolled her eyes. She walked over to Donald and Goofy and led them out of the doors. “So guys, here’s the deal,” she said. They looked up at her. “If there’s some kind of competition, I’m sure that Sora and Riku would enter it if they’re here! They love contests!” She crossed her arms in thought. “So we have to enter and see if they’re participating!”

“She’s right, Donald,” Goofy said. “The king might be in the contest too.”

Donald tapped his foot impatiently for a moment before nodding. “But how are we going to get in?”

Kairi shook her head. “I don’t know. He was so dismissive; I don’t know how we can get him to listen!”

A tall, blue man with flaming hair perked up from the other side of the sandlot like he heard what they were saying. He walked up to them. “Who are you?” Donald asked.

“The name’s Hades, Lord of the Dead, God of the Underworld, yadda yadda. How ya doing?” he chattered off.

“Um, we’re fine,” Kairi said.

“So you want to enter the games,” Hades noted. “To do that, you need a ticket. I can help you with that.”

“Help us; what’s the catch?” Kairi asked.

Hades laughed. “No catch, no catch; I just need you to get to the end of the preliminaries. I just want to see you succeed.” In a puff of smoke, a piece of paper appeared in his hands.

Kairi paused in thought. This man seemed like a shady character. Lord of the Dead; God of the Underworld. Those things didn’t automatically make this person untrustworthy. Just because someone’s involved with the dead didn’t mean they were evil. No, there was something else about his actions, his personality. He was too smooth, to calm, cool, collected; he made her generally uncomfortable. She didn’t trust him. But they had to get into the games.

She looked between Donald and Goofy who were looking at her expectantly waiting for her to make a decision. “Yeah,” she said without thinking. “Sure. We can do that; no problem!” She took the piece of paper and looked it over. Nothing too out of place or sketchy about it; it was just an entry voucher. “Thanks, Hades,” she said.

She turned to Donald and Goofy. “Okay, let’s go on and get to it.” she said. “Come on! Let’s get back in there.”

Donald and Goofy looked at each other warily. It was obvious that they didn’t think this was a good idea, but they wouldn’t leave her side.

0o0o0

Kairi walked back up to the satyr. “Excuse me,” she said to get his attention.

He turned around. “The kid again? Go on, scram!”

Kairi held up the piece of paper. “Isn’t this what you need so that we can enter?”

“Huh?” He raised his eyebrows. “How did you get ahold of that?”

“Well, is it?” she asked.

The satyr crossed his arms. “Well… yeah.” He sighed. “The name’s Phil. I guess I’ll have to let you into the preliminaries; but that’s no guarantee that you’ll make it into the actual games!”

“We’ll make it through,” Kairi said. “I know that we will! We don’t need a guarantee.”

The contest was explained; it was a set of battles in a tournament type setting that would eventually lead to whether you got into the official games or not. There were ten rounds, and each round in theory should get harder and harder.

The first few rounds were super simple. How had heartless gotten into the tournament anyway when not just anyone could walk in? It made no sense, but she wasn’t going to question Phil about it; he was grumpier than Donald! The rounds did get gradually more difficult, but nothing that she and the others couldn’t handle easily.

It wasn’t until the tenth and final round that they finally ran into an actual person; some contest when you’re only fighting against mindless monsters. Kairi had to wonder why there weren’t more human participants if the contest was this simple. But this last competitor seemed to be something different; he seemed to be very powerful and very capable of fighting to defend himself. They were already in the competition at this point, and Kairi had seen no sign of Sora nor Riku. If they were in the contest they would have made it this far, so it followed that they weren’t here at all. It would be back to the drawing board after this last fight.

Kairi, Donald, and Goofy waited for their opponent from the ring; a blonde spiky-haired man clad in blue with a red scarf and a giant sword. He was to the side talking to someone. Kairi thought she spotted some blue flames from beside the gate where he stood. Was he talking to Hades? Had Hades helped him enter too?

“Nice going, kid!” Phil was suddenly beside them. “I knew you had it in you.”

“Sure you did,” Kairi said dully. “Thank you though. This has been a lot of fun!”

“Fun, huh?” Phil shook his head. “Be careful of this last guy though. His name’s Cloud and I just don’t like the vibes I get off of him.”

“Cloud…” Kairi watched him. “We’ll be careful, Phil; but I don’t see any reason to worry.”

“Worry? Who said I was worried,” Phil protested. “Well, I’d better go monitor this fight.”

Finally Cloud stepped onto the battlefield. The round began. Donald and Goofy were quickly knocked out, surprising Kairi who had expected a more difficult battle, but not one that quick since she had help and Cloud did not. Kairi managed to dodge a few more attacks, but in the end her efforts were futile. She was knocked to the ground and Phil called the contest.

Cloud turned and started to walk away. “Good battle!” Kairi called to him.

He glanced back but said nothing… Until an angry Hades came out of nowhere. “We had a deal!” he said to Cloud. “You were supposed to take out the Keyblade Wielder!”

“And I told you I wasn’t going to hurt a kid,” Cloud said calmly. “Getting into the competition and getting to Hercules was one thing. When you added on the girl; well, that’s when our deal ended.”

Hades’ teeth were clenched and he began to turn red. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll just have to go to Plan B! Cerberus! Get ‘em, boy!”

A giant, black, three headed dog broke through the closed gates that led to the barracks. “Run!” Phil yelled at Kairi and co. They were in no state for another fight; so they ran. “Hercules, get in there!” Phil called to a large, muscular, red-headed man. He charged into the arena as Kairi and her friends made it safely out of it.

“Where’s Cloud?” Kairi worried as she looked around the room.

“Still out there; but don’t worry, Herc’s in there with him,” Phil assured.

0o0o0

Several minutes later, some time for potions and recovery, and there was still no sign of Cloud or Hercules. “Do you think they need help in there?” Kairi asked.

Phil looked worried, but he shook his head. “No, kid, I’m sure Herc’s got it covered.” He looked around warily before peeking his head out of the doorway long enough to take a quick look. “On second thought…”

“Got it,” Kairi said. “We’ll go lend a hand!” She rushed back into the ring, followed by Donald and Goofy.

Cloud was lying unconscious just inside the doorway; that worried Kairi as they headed in. Hercules was holding Cerberus back by the chest, just out of reach of the giant, biting heads. He was having a hard time holding him back and fighting at the same time.

“Don’t worry, we’re here to help!” Kairi called as they ran up closer and joined the fight. 

The arena was in shambles and it was difficult to maneuver around the debris. But they managed, and it didn’t take long for the already weakened Cerberus to be defeated as Hercules shoved him back behind the metal bars and closed them behind him.

“Thanks, you guys,” Hercules said to them. “Things were really getting rough out there!”

“No problem! You’d already handled most of things, so it was no big deal,” Kairi said with a grin.

Cloud woke up as they walked closer to the doorway. He stood up, hand over his eyes. He refused to look at them; he looked ashamed. Hercules said, “Cloud, making deals with Hades isn’t wise. Why’d you do it?”

Cloud was silent for a moment before shaking his head. “I’m looking for someone. He said he’d help. Now I know it was a trick.”

Kairi perked up, knowing that she would have done the exact same thing; heck, she had done similar anyway. “Hey Cloud… thanks for holding back and not attacking me further. You’re really strong… I don’t know if I could have held my own.”

Cloud shook his head. “I wasn’t about to hurt a kid, no matter what Hades told me. When he told me to do that, the deal was off.” He didn’t stop once they got inside; he kept walking out the other doors. 

Kairi watched him go. Part of her wanted to follow him, but her thoughts were interrupted. “Good going, kid. I knew you had it in you!” Phil said.

She looked over at him skeptically. “Say Phil; I’m guessing the games are put off for a while with all of that damage out there.”

He frowned. “You’re right. Cerberus really tore things up.”

“Well, that’s okay! We’ll just come back when the time comes!” Kairi smiled. “Don’t worry.”

“You guys aren’t true heroes yet; you don’t know what that means,” Phil said. “But you’ve got potential. One day, you’ll get there.”

Donald tapped his foot impatiently. “Are we done here?” he asked.

Kairi laughed. “Right. See you around, Phil, Hercules!” She waved and they walked out of the building.

Kairi spotted Cloud sitting on the steps on the other side of the lot, towards the exit to the Lanes Between. He was staring out into space contemplatively. She rushed across the field, quickly followed by Donald and Goofy. Cloud looked up at them. “Listen, Kairi; I can tell you’re searching for someone too,” he said.

“Huh? How’d you know that?” Kairi asked.

“Whatever you do, don’t do like me; don’t give into the darkness while you search for the light,” Cloud said. He stood up.

“Hey, it’s not too late to get out of the darkness,” Kairi said. “You proved that when you stopped listening to Hades and didn’t hurt me.”

Cloud shook his head. “Maybe you’re right.” He stared back off into the distance. “But I know that I won’t find what I’m looking for here.”

“Well, you’ll find it somewhere! Don’t worry!” Kairi smiled at him. “You just have to keep hope.”

“Thanks, Kairi,” Cloud said. He turned and started walking away. He glanced back over his shoulder. “I hope you find whatever you’re looking for,” he said. He started walking again.

Once he was gone, Kairi turned to Donald and Goofy. “Well he certainly was enigmatic.”

“Gawrsh, fellas, we didn’t find any of them here either,” Goofy said sadly.

“We should get moving,” Donald said. “Standing around here isn’t going to do any good.”

“You’re right!” Kairi agreed. “So let’s go.”

And with that, they headed out into the Lanes Between to get to their ship and head out into the next world.

0o0o0

(Elsewhere)

The waterfall’s crash was too loud here. What might have been peaceful was giving him a headache. This cave was so tranquil and empty, but Solace didn’t have the heart for those kinds of things anymore. No, he was here for a reason or he wouldn’t be here at all. He looked around the cave. He spotted what he expected, embedded in the vines of the walls. The Keyhole. And below? Exactly what he was looking for.

“Hmm… I expected as much,” Solace said as he walked over to the unconscious boy. He lay slumped against the wall, his hair’s brown spikes displaced by his positioning. “You’ve lost your heart, like she did.” Solace crouched down in front of him and checked for a pulse. “Still alive though, and not a heartless. It must be much the same.”

He stood back up and looked around the strange room. He shook his head. “If I leave you here she’ll find you… We can’t have that, now can we?” Solace looked back at the boy. “Worry not, Sora. I won’t leave you for dead. I have nothing against you… We just have to wait for the perfect moment.” He picked him up in his arms. “And in the meantime, I will keep you safe.”


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

They were nearing a world; it was a lush, green world with a beautiful blue waterfall flowing down one side. It kind of reminded her of the little island away from civilization back home; it looked calm and peaceful, if a bit empty and barren. “This place looks nice—“

“It looks stupid! There’s no way the king would be here. Let’s move on!” Donald said, grabbing the controls and preparing to turn around.

“Hey, wait, no!” Kairi protested. “We don’t know if Sora and Riku are down there! They could have ended up anywhere, even here!”

“We aren’t going to waste our time looking in some backwater place like this!” Donald argued. “We’re leaving.”

“No we’re not!” Kairi argued, shoving her way towards the controls. “We’re landing!”

“Uh, Kairi, don’t mess with the controls, you don’t know how to fly the ship,” Goofy tried. “And Donald, why don’t you listen to Kairi—“

“No! This is a waste of time,” Donald snapped.

“It’s not a waste of time! They could be down there, you never know. Your king could be too!”

“The king would never be somewhere like this!”

“We’re landing, and we’re going to look for my friends,” Kairi said, finally making it to the controls. She looked at them. She thought she’d seen Donald hit this button—

Nope, she was wrong. The ship flipped upside down, the cockpit opened, and they were all flung down to the world below.

0o0o0

“Oh, my head…” Kairi groaned as she sat up and looked around the run-down wooden room. The chirping of birds and bugs rang in the broken windows where the sunlight slanted in peacefully into the dusty building. There were holes in the ceiling; beams of sunlight flooded in between the rafters. Where was she?

She spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. She thought she saw a person with spiky brown hair… it could only be one person. “Sora?” She stood up and looked around; but there was no sign of him anywhere. “Sora, where are you?” Her eyes began to burn. No, she wasn’t about to cry. Sora… Riku… why did they have to be separated? How was she supposed to know if they were okay? How was she supposed to find them? She had to find them. There was no other choice. That was her goal, and Donald and Goofy—or at least Donald—didn’t seem to think about what she wanted out of this journey at all. She guessed she must have been hallucinating again. She did fall from a great height, after all.

She saw movement again, this time lower to the ground. Her heart started pounding harder and faster. She could tell she was in danger. She summoned her Keyblade and slowly turned in a circle to try to take in the room more closely in search of whatever the danger might be. She heard a noise behind her and turned around just in time to block a leopard from jumping on her back. She shoved it away with her Keyblade, but it pounced back in again. She knew that she had to fight it, innocent animal or not, because if she didn’t she was going to be hurt which was the last thing she wanted. She had to stay safe if she were to be able to find Riku and Sora…

But as she was fighting, a strange man clad only in a loin-cloth jumped in through the window and attacked the leopard and quickly chased it off. He shuffled over to her walking strangely on his knuckles. “Sabor, danger,” he said.

“Sabor?” Kairi wondered. “Was that what you call that leopard? Sabor?”

He nodded once. He muttered something incomprehensible. “Sabor, danger,” he repeated.

“Okay…” Kairi looked around again. “Thank you for helping me,” she said. He tilted his head. She sighed. “Oh! Would you happen to have seen my friends? Their names are Riku and Sora—“ she paused. “Oh, and Donald and Goofy too.”

“Friends, here,” he said after muttering something again.

“They’re here?” she asked excitedly. “Great! Can you take me to them?”

He tilted his head again. He obviously didn’t completely understand what was being said. “Name is Tarzan,” he said.

“Oh! I’m Kairi.”

“Tarzan take Kairi to Jane. Jane help.” Tarzan looked to her for confirmation.

“Okay,” Kairi said with a smile. “Let’s do that, then! I don’t know who Jane is, but if she can help me, then it’s a good place to start!”

0o0o0

As it turned out, the building that they were in was a treehouse overlooking the massive forest below. The sky above was such a beautiful blue that it reminded her of home. Kairi hadn’t seen such a pure sky in what felt like weeks; it was amazing to see one now, and the lush greenery below was so much nicer than the paper-like forest of Wonderland. Tarzan led her down the massive trunk of the tree, past netting below the building preventing fall into the far-below thicket, and into the lush green forest. She had to fight herself not to stop and marvel at the beauty of the sun filtering through the leaves and leaving a faint glow that made the forest feel mystical and like it was a magical place. This world was so peaceful… The tranquility reminded her of home and it made her wish she was back where the ocean softly lapped against the shore staring out at the same sunset once more.

But she wasn’t at home, and she couldn’t be anytime soon. Her home was gone. She had to figure out a way to get it back. It made her feel ill to think about her home, her family, her friends; she wished that Riku and Sora were here to support her, but the only time she ever thought she saw Sora it was just her imagination. Donald and Goofy were nice; but they would never replace her best friends, not in the least.

“In here,” Tarzan said, pointing to an opening in a hollowed out stump.

“Huh?” Kairi hesitated, but followed him in. The moment she stepped on the tall tree trunk, she started sliding down it. “Whoa!” She managed to gain her balance and hold herself steady as she slid. It was like surfing. She had been surfing before and done pretty well; she was glad to have had that experience as Tarzan slid expertly in front of her, waiting just enough that she didn’t get out of sight.

It wasn’t the easiest task to maintain her balance on the precarious tree, especially when she had to jump or slide away from the center to dodge a few branches and limbs here and there; but she managed. And soon enough, they dropped down on a campsite filled with a tent, awnings and wooden crates. She hadn’t been expecting this kind of thing; this world had seemed so empty. But she should have known when she ran into Tarzan that it wasn’t as empty as it seemed. 

Tarzan led her over to the doorway of the large tent. He gestured to for her to follow as he went inside.

She followed him in. There was a woman on the other side of the room who looked up when she heard them come in. “Oh? Tarzan, you brought a friend?”

“Hello,” Kairi said. “I’m Kairi. Tarzan said—“

“Oh, you speak English!” she said in surprise. “I’m Jane… Oh, I’m sorry, I interrupted you!”

Kairi giggled. “That’s okay, don’t worry about it. Tarzan said that you might be able to help me find my friends.”

“Why, there isn’t anyone around here but us and Mr. Clayton,” Jane said looking concerned. Just then, the tent door opened and a man with greying hair and a shot gun came in. “Oh, Mr. Clayton!”

Donald and Goofy filed in behind Mr. Clayton. “I found these ones out lost in the woods,” he said.

“Donald! Goofy!” Kairi cheered. They rushed over to her and grinned for a moment. But then Donald scowled. “Oh, come on, Donald, I know we just had an argument, but can you let it go? We’re here now. We may as well look around.” 

Donald tapped his foot impatiently before sighing. “Fine,” he said. “But next time, listen to me.”

“You weren’t listening to me!” Kairi argued. “We need to listen to each other’s opinions, okay? We need to discuss things so that we don’t end up arguing and getting ourselves into trouble because of it.”

“She’s right, Donald,” Goofy said.

“A circus of clowns is what they are,” Clayton said. 

Kairi did her best to ignore his comment. She turned back to Jane. “So… You said no one else is around here that you know of… that doesn’t mean they’re not around entirely, right?”

“They might be here; you never know,” Jane offered. “Maybe Tarzan can help you look.”

“They’re probably with the gorillas,” Clayton said. “Isn’t that right Tarzan?” Tarzan tilted his head. “You understand, don’t you? Go-ril-las.”

“Tarzan, will you take them to check?” Jane asked.

Tarzan studied Kairi intensely for a moment; it was like he stared into her soul to see what intentions lay there. He slowly nodded.

“Oh, thank you, Tarzan!” Kairi said. He was a strange man, perhaps not seeming entirely human; but she knew she could trust him, and she knew that it was a great thing for her to have gained his trust.

“Tarzan show the way,” Tarzan said. He walked over to the door of the tent and stood there waiting for a moment. He looked at Clayton warily before shaking his head. Then he led them out of the tent and back into the beautiful and mysterious world that lay in wait for them.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

To the left of the tent was an opening back into dense forest. Tarzan led them in that direction. Within the forest was a small lagoon, and within that lagoon were a few pink hippos. Kairi was cautious; she wasn’t the strongest swimmer, and the creatures within this little lake could be dangerous. But Tarzan led the way across, and there was no other way across but through this body of water. Kairi took a deep breath before stepping into the water; if she reached down enough, her feet reached the bottom. That made her comfortable enough to make it across to the other shore before pulling herself up. They walked over to a vine that seemed to lead up into the forest canopy. She climbed it after Tarzan; she got the feeling that this was going to be quite the unsettling experience.

Up at the top they were in an extremely high area; the trees were close enough together to jump between them, but there was no ground in sight, only trees. “How are we supposed to get across here?” Kairi worried. Tarzan jumped to the next tree and looked at Kairi and the others expectantly. Kairi took a deep breath, stepped back a little bit, and took a running jump onto the next tree. “Oh. That wasn’t so bad…” She did her best not to look down, knowing that that would break her cool and make her freak out for sure; and the last thing she needed to do was freak out and end up falling far below.

Crossing the forest from tree to tree was nerve racking, but she managed to do it as long as she didn’t pay too much attention to what everyone else was doing. Soon they were across and made it to their destination.

Some gorillas stood on a distant tree, and when they spotted them, Tarzan said something that none of them could understand. The gorillas turned around and walked away in silence, no sound uttered but giving off the feeling that they didn’t approve of the situation at all. Tarzan shook his head. “Friends not here.”

“Oh…” Kairi looked down. “Thank you for asking them anyway,” Kairi said. Tarzan nodded. “Let’s… let’s go back.”

“Go back. Go back,” Tarzan agreed.

They turned around to go back; just in that moment, a gunshot rang out from the distance. “That was at the treehouse!” Kairi exclaimed.

Tarzan’s eyes widened and he started sprinting in that direction. Kairi and the others followed as quickly behind as they could, but they knew that he would get there much faster and it was better for him to do so than to worry about why someone was shooting a gun and not find out the answer.

0o0o0

They made it to the treehouse, and Kairi spotted Clayton inside the building, gun pointed at something. As they rushed around the corner, they saw that it was pointed at a gorilla. “Clayton, stop!” Kairi said.

Clayton quickly lowered his gun and turned around nervously. “There was a snake, you see,” he claimed, “I was only trying to save the gorilla!”

Tarzan shook his head. Not a one of them believed him; there was no reason to. Kairi now knew why Tarzan had been so wary of this man, and she knew that it was for good reason. “Let’s just go,” Kairi said.

0o0o0

Clayton ended up going on ahead and disappearing into the forest. They didn’t exactly want him to, but they couldn’t exactly stop him; they could only hope that he wouldn’t replicate the scenario and attack another gorilla; those creatures were innocent and didn’t deserve to be hunted and killed.

But speaking of creatures, when they rounded a corner and ended up in an unfamiliar clearing, a bunch of heartless burst into the scene in their trademark puffs of darkness. Kairi summoned her Keyblade. “What are the heartless doing here? I thought this world was safe!”

“Apparently not,” Donald said.

They all joined forces to fight away the dangerous creatures. While they did, a shrill scream rang out from the distance. “Jane!” Tarzan said worriedly.

That was their cue to hurry up and finish off the creatures and rush back to the tent as quickly as possible. When they got there, the campsite was in shambles; boxes were knocked over or destroyed; fabric was shredded. Kairi knew that they were too late—

When they got into the tent, Kairi wasn’t the least bit surprised to find it empty. She looked around frantically. “We have to go out there and find her!” Kairi said.

Even Donald nodded in agreement. If the heartless had taken her, it was no longer meddling; or maybe Donald was just getting used to the idea of meddling being okay in certain circumstances. Either way, there was no time to waste.

0o0o0

Kairi followed Tarzan closely and was trailed by Donald and Goofy. They had to make it to wherever Jane was before the heartless could hurt her. They burst into an unfamiliar room filled with trees and flowers—and heartless.

“Tarzan!” Jane’s voice rang from the center of the room. Kairi looked around frantically; that’s when she spotted her. She was trapped in some sort of cage attached to a tree.

“Jane!” Tarzan rushed over to Jane and frantically looked for a way to break through the cage.

Kairi spotted something strange on the other side of the tree. There was a strange, black fruit attached firmly to the trunk. She rushed over to it and examined it. She looked around. “You guys; hold of the heartless! I’m going to destroy this thing. I think that it will get her out!”

“Right!” Goofy said and began to attack the foes to hold them back away from Kairi to protect her from attacks while she focused her energy on destroying the fruit.

It took quite a while, but eventually the fruit dissolved into black dust, and the cage on the other side of the tree opened, exposing Jane and a gorilla together safely. Kairi rushed over to Jane. “What happened?” she asked.

“I don’t remember,” Jane said. “All I remember was those creatures showing up, this gorilla coming into the tent—then everything just went black!”

“Are you okay?” Goofy asked her.

“I’m fine. Thank you for asking,” she said.

Kairi turned and looked at everyone. “We need to find out what happened!”

Another gunshot rang out from the distance. “Again?” Donald said irritably.

Kairi looked around. “Which direction did that come from?” Tarzan gestured. “Okay then, Donald, Goofy: get Jane back to the tent! Tarzan and I will go and find out what that gunshot was about!”

“Right! We’ll come and find you once she’s safe!” Goofy said.

Kairi started running as quickly as she could behind Tarzan; she seemed to be getting faster, which was definitely a good thing in this scenario. All of the running, walking, and jumping that she had been doing for so long now was certainly paying off. She had never been in such good of shape as she was getting to be now, and she was glad that she was with all of this wandering between worlds and having to fight.

The thick and lush green forest was beginning to seem less beautiful and more like a burden to navigate as they ran. Branches were fallen in her path and she had to dodge between them or over them or under them; leaves were falling in front of her eyes and the ground was slippery from fallen foliage. But soon enough, they made it to the cliff side. Clayton stood there with his back to them. He slowly turned around, gun aimed towards them.

“Clayton! What are you doing?” Kairi asked warily.

“Not Clayton!” Tarzan disagreed. He muttered something incomprehensible. “Not Clayton!” he repeated.

The cliff face behind him burst into a pile of rocks. Clayton slowly lowered his gun, but he began to lift off of the ground. A strange animalistic sound came from underneath him. Tarzan lunged towards him. He was knocked backwards. Clayton aimed his gun again, and Kairi knew she was in for a fight.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“What’s going on?” Donald called from behind as he and Goofy caught up.

Kairi didn’t let herself get distracted by them as Clayton and whatever he was riding dashed at her. She barely dodged out of the way. “Look out!” she called to her friends as she began attacking the invisible force. “Something’s controlling him!”

Tarzan leapt in to help, jumping on the front of the unseen creature and attacking with his spear. Kairi rushed back in for another attack, jumping fearlessly in front of the creature to get a better attack. She had to get Clayton down from there. She had to talk some sense into him—no, it was too late for that. He was shooting at her without mercy. Something was wrong with Clayton and there was nothing they could do about it. Clayton wasn’t the most pleasant or trustworthy person in the first place, but it was obvious that whatever discretion he once had was long gone now.

A few more hits and the target showed itself; a giant chameleon standing up on its hind legs. Kairi kept rushing in to attack, being more careful now that she could see what the creature was doing. She kept attacking it as Clayton jumped off of the creature’s back and leaped for the cliffs where he had a better position to aim and shoot. She needed to focus on one target at a time. “Can you guys focus your attention here too?” she called to Donald and Goofy, as Tarzan was already doing so.

“Right!” Goofy said as he rushed in closer to attack.

The creature began to shoot laser beams out of its eyes. “What the heck?” Kairi asked as she dodged out of the way. “That’s no fair! We’re being shot at from two places now!” Regardless of her complaints, she continued to attack, shooting off a few thunder spells as well to try to fight the creature more effectively. A few more attacks and the creature was knocked unconscious.

Now it was time to focus on Clayton. “Clayton, snap out of it!” Kairi tried.

“Not Clayton!” Tarzan repeated as he attacked without hesitation.

Kairi shook her head, swallowed her fear, and attacked him as well. He fell far more quickly than the lizard, and once he was knocked out, the lizard and he disappeared in a burst of darkness. “Huh?” Kairi wondered as she stared where he had been. Where had he gone? Had he been turned into a heartless yet remained in his human form?

Tarzan looked sad, but he shook his head. “Not Clayton,” he seemed to reassure himself.

“You’re right, Tarzan,” Kairi assured. “It wasn’t Clayton anymore.”

Something caught Kairi’s attention out of the corner of her eye. When she turned around to look, two gorillas stood there, studying her carefully. Tarzan muttered something that she couldn’t understand, and the gorillas came closer. “Um, hello,” Kairi said quietly while knowing full well that the primates wouldn’t understand a word that came out of her mouth.

The larger of the gorillas gently touched her back. She stiffened. Suddenly it held the back of her shirt really hard and flung her into the air. “Kairi!” Donald yelled in a panicked voice.

Kairi screamed as she flew through the air. She landed on her stomach with a thud on top of the cliff that had been revealed when the old face was broken away. She slowly stood up; she was unhurt. She heard two thuds behind her, and when she looked over, there lay Donald and Goofy. Tarzan quickly climbed up the cliff to join them. “That was scary,” Kairi said as Donald and Goofy stood up, “but at least none of us were hurt.”

“Kerchak no hurt,” Tarzan assured.

Kairi heard the familiar crash of a waterfall. She turned and looked behind her. It stood there in the distance, flowing peacefully down a nearby cliff side. The beautiful blue water flowed between two emerald green faces of the wall. It was powerful; the sound rang loudly through the air and into her ears. She wasn’t sure where it came from; there had been nothing here before.

Tarzan started walking towards an opening in the wall. He looked at Kairi expectantly, like he was waiting. She slowly walked to follow him. “C’mon, guys,” she said to her friends. “Let’s see what there is to see.”

0o0o0

They wandered into a cavern behind the waterfall; the water flowed precariously to one side of them. Kairi looked around in awe. She would have expected this place to be pitch black and lifeless, but the sunlight flowed gently through the torrent and brought life to vines and flowers. She took a moment to take in her surroundings, breathing deep of the damp air filled with the smell of plants and of the river. She took it as a moment to take this place in to remember it.

Tarzan started climbing up the cliff. He looked at Kairi and waited for her to follow. She followed without hesitation. She was stronger now. She knew that she could manage to climb this wall since there were ledges wide enough that she could take a minute to rest her arms if necessary. She wondered where Tarzan was taking her in this beautiful place, and Donald and Goofy were right behind her, if a bit more wary of what was going on.

When they reached the top, there was an opening that led into another cave. Within that cave were blue butterflies congregating on something. Tarzan gestured towards it. He said the same, incomprehensible thing again. “Friends, here.” He gestured towards his heart.

“Oh. You don’t mean they’re here…” Kairi acknowledged sadly. “You mean that they’re always in my heart…”

Tarzan tilted his head. He didn’t seem to understand, but, he seemed to agree.

Suddenly Kairi’s Keyblade appeared in her hand. A beam of light emerged from the end and was directed at the area where the butterflies gathered. There was a clicking noise as they slowly scattered, uncovering a keyhole. From that keyhole came a block. “Huh?” Kairi wondered, confused as to what had happened. She walked over to the wall and put her hand above the opening.

Donald came over and picked up the block. “What’s a gummi block doing out here?” he asked.

“I don’t know…” Kairi said. She looked around again, taking in the beautiful vines and blue flowers that somehow thrived in the darkness of this cave. She sighed. “But… I think I’ve learned something.”

“Huh?” Goofy wondered.

“Even though Riku and Sora aren’t here with me right now, they will always help me from within my heart. With them in my thoughts, I can do anything!” Kairi explained. “And that means that sometime soon, I’m going to find them, and together, we can find out what happened to our world!”

Donald looked down. “Kairi, I’m sorry that I argued with you and didn’t want to land here. We promised you we’d help look for your friends. I should have remembered that promise.”

Kairi was touched that she was getting an apology. She hadn’t expected one. “Thank you, Donald. I appreciate it. You and I: we just need to learn how to get along if we’re going to survive this journey and find my friends and your king.”

“Yeah!” Goofy said. “All for one and one for all!”

Kairi grinned. She got the feeling that things would be better now; and all it took was a small little detour to a place far out of the way.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Why can’t we go any farther?” Kairi asked. “It’s like the path is blocked!”

“I don’t know,” Donald admitted. “Gummi ships aren’t exactly my specialty.”

“Gawrsh, why don’t we go back to Traverse Town?” Goofy suggested. “Maybe Leon and the others can help us!”

Kairi paused and thought about it for a moment. It was true that they seemed to be more knowledgeable about many things. They were outside of their own world and had been for a very long time. Perhaps they knew more about gummi ships and might be able to help them out. “It’s worth a shot,” Kairi agreed. “You never know what they might say.”

And so they headed out to the world where their journey had begun; Kairi got the feeling that this was going to be a bumpy ride; but whatever may come, she wasn’t alone anymore.

0o0o0

Kairi looked around the park just inside of the entrance of Traverse Town for any signs of where to go. Finding Leon and the others might be easier said than done. They might be back at the small house in the third district or they could be anywhere else. The first thing she, Donald, and Goofy needed to figure out was how to find them all.

She spotted someone standing across the park from her, next to the mailbox and the staircase that led up to the Accessory Shop. Yuffie waved to her. Kairi headed over quickly. That was easier than she had anticipated. “Hey!” Kairi called as she came up to Yuffie and stood in front of here. “What’s up?”

“Glad to see you’re back in town. There’s some more stuff that we’ve found out that might help you on your journey,” Yuffie explained. “Leon’s back in the secret waterway that the alleyway behind the hotel leads to. You should go see him!”

Kairi nodded. “Right! Thanks; we were actually about to look for you guys. We didn’t know where to start.”

Yuffie looked at Donald and Goofy. “Huh? I guess you found them.”

Kairi nodded. “Yeah; and I don’t know if I would have been able to make it this far without them,” she admitted.

“Gawrsh, you would have been fine, Kairi,” Goofy assured. “But we’re always glad to help.”

Kairi smiled. She looked back at Yuffie. “Thanks for letting us know where Leon is. We’ll go and find him and talk to him. I take it that he has something important to say?”

“He and Aerith discovered more important information within the reports of Ansem the Wise,” Yuffie explained.

“Oh,” Kairi said. “I know that you guys briefly mentioned those reports. I wonder what’s up.” She smiled. “Thanks, Yuffie. We’ll head out now,” she said.

“No problem!”

Kairi turned around and started heading in the direction of the alleyway on the other side of town. It wasn’t a long journey. She could only hope that there wouldn’t be too many heartless around on the way; battles were exhausting, and though she was becoming a far better fighter with each battle she participated in, she didn’t exactly enjoy them. She was glad of that; violence was not the answer unless it was life or death, and she really wished that none of this made fighting so vital. She was still getting over having fought Clayton; fighting heartless, soulless creatures with glowing eyes and being formed of darkness, was different than fighting actual people. She wasn’t fond of the latter at all. But what else was she supposed to do in that situation? She’d do it again if the need arose.

0o0o0

“Do you think this is it?” Kairi asked as she hopped into the shallow pool on one side of the alley. She looked as far as she could into a gaping hole in the wall that had once been covered in bars. She didn’t see much; it was very dark.

“I don’t know,” Donald said, “but I don’t see anywhere else to try. We know where everything else leads to.

“Alright then,” Kairi said. She took a few steps forward before looking back at Donald and Goofy, who hesitated. “Come on, guys. We need to go talk to Leon. Nothing bad is going to pop out at us, I promise.”

Goofy nodded and followed her as she started walking again, followed closely by Donald.

The opening opened up into a dimly lit cave filled with water. The shallow water of the alley opened up into a little bit deeper water that required swimming to get through, though only for a short span of time. The rocky shore in the distance was low and Kairi was able to reach it and climb up onto it within a matter of seconds rather than minutes (thankfully; she couldn’t swim very well). She spotted Leon standing there swinging his sword to practice, being watched by Aerith as he did so.

She cautiously walked up to a few feet away before stopping. “Hey, what’s up?” Kairi asked.

Leon stopped swinging his sword and turned to look at her. “You’re back,” he observed.

Aerith looked over at where Donald and Goofy stood behind her. “I see that you found them,” she said happily. “I’m glad to know that you’ve been traveling together rather than alone.”

Kairi shrugged. “It’s… nice not traveling alone,” she decided. She shook her head. “But that’s not the point; Yuffie said that you two have something important to tell us?”

Aerith nodded. “We found out more in Ansem’s reports; about something called ‘keyholes’.”

“’Keyholes’…” Kairi paused in thought. She had run across two keyholes in their travels. Could those being the ones of which they spoke. “What are they?”

“They are locks to the hearts of worlds,” Leon said. “They can be sealed by the Keyblade to protect the worlds from the heartless.”

“Sealed by the Keyblade?” Kairi asked in surprise. It brought to her memory the mysterious beams of light that had been emitted by the sword near the openings on each world. “And it protects the worlds from heartless… You mean we can keep the worlds from being destroyed like my island was?”

“Could be,” Leon said. “Every world has a keyhole; even this one.”

“Every world, huh?” Kairi hesitated. She couldn’t help but feel sorry that the one on her own world had not been sealed in time. “So that means…” She looked down. “That means that I need to find these keyholes and seal them before the heartless can get to the hearts of the worlds! I can stop this all from happening!”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Leon said. “But the point is that we need you to find this world’s keyhole to stop it from falling into the darkness. One world at a time, right? And this world is a safe haven for those who have lost their worlds. It needs to be protected.”

“Right,” Kairi said with a nod. “Now I have a question for you: we seem to be stuck only able to go to a select few worlds in our ship; might you know how to go elsewhere?” She pulled out the strange block. “And we found this thing…”

Leon shook his head. “Talk to Cid on that one,” he said.

“Cid? How would Cid know?” Donald asked.

“Running the Accessory Shop isn’t his real job,” Aerith said. “Go talk to him; maybe he can help you.”

“But before we leave this world, we’ll try to find the keyhole,” Kairi promised. “Do you know where it is?” Leon turned around and looked away in silence. He reluctantly shook his head after a long pause. “You know, you could say ‘no’,” Kairi pointed out.

Aerith laughed. “Don’t mind him,” she said. “He doesn’t like to admit when he doesn’t know things; and I don’t know either.”

“We’ll keep searching ourselves, and researching everything we can find to try to figure it out. You should do the same,” Leon said.

“Okay; no problem!” Kairi said. “Well, we’d better go,” she said.

“Good luck,” he said.

“I hope that Cid can help you,” Aerith said. “In the meantime, stay safe.”

Kairi turned around and faced Donald and Goofy. Donald tapped his foot impatiently as they stepped out of hearing range. “Another task?” Donald asked irritably. “I feel like you’re forgetting our goals.”

Kairi shook her head. “I know that we’re looking for Riku, Sora, and your king: but we can’t just let the worlds be destroyed! We need to do what we can while we search! As we go world by world, we can seal the keyholes that we pass; it’ll work out well! It won’t be adding anything onto our journey, really!”

“What makes you say that?” Goofy asked. “We don’t even know how to seal the keyholes!”

Kairi shook her head. “I think I do,” she said. “Do you remember, back in Wonderland and in the jungle, the strange openings in random places; in the mouth of the door, and in the wall in the cave? I think those were keyholes, and at each place, a beam of light came from my Keyblade and there was a click; I think that was sealing them!”

Donald blinked a couple of times. “That makes sense,” he said, sounding surprised. “So it’s somewhat automatic; you get the Keyblade near the keyhole and it just happens.”

“Right! That’s what it seems like!” Kairi agreed. She started walking. “So that will be, as you said, ‘another task’ that we have to take on, but we don’t have to go out of our way to do it! I can’t let another world fall into darkness if I can do anything about it!” She turned to face them again. “But first thing’s first; we need to go talk to Cid and see what he has to say about our ship!”


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Kairi led Donald and Goofy into the Accessory Shop. Cid stood there staring off into space behind the counter. He looked up when he heard them come in. “Kairi! Good to see that you’re okay!”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Kairi grinned. “I told you I would be!”

Cid paused. “So what brings you here today?”

“Oh! We were out trying to travel between worlds, and we hit a dead end.” She looked down.

“Oh? Are you guys flying in a gummi ship?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Kairi said. “Leon said that you might be able to help us…”

Cid nodded. “Meet me by your ship; I’ll talk to you out there. Maybe we can figure something out.”

“Okay!” He headed out, and they followed.

0o0o0

“So it doesn’t look like you have the right navigational gummis,” Cid told them once they caught up.

“Navigational gummis?” Donald asked. “What are those?”

“Yeah, I’ve never heard of them,” Chip said as he climbed out of the gummi ship to look with them.

“You don’t know what navigational gummis are?” Cid asked in outrage. “Then what the heck are you guys doing out there flying a gummi ship?”

“Necessity,” Kairi answered. She paused. “So navigational gummis… would they happen to look like this?” Kairi asked as she pulled out the gummi block.

“Huh? Yeah… but that’s only half of it. I’d need the other piece to install it.”

Kairi frowned. “Well we don’t have the other piece! This is what I’ve got.”

Cid paused. “I don’t have any that I could install for you,” he admitted. “So you’ll just have to go out there and find one.”

“Of course,” Kairi said with a sigh. “Thanks anyway, Cid. I do really appreciate it.”

“Now wait a minute, if you find the other piece, I’ll install it for you, free of charge since you’re just a kid,” he said. “Where’d you find this one, anyway?”

“Another world,” Kairi replied. She didn’t want to mention the keyholes; it wasn’t that she didn’t trust Cid, because she truly did… but you never know who might be listening in. “Hopefully we can find something like it somewhere around here. That would be so much easier than having to go back and scour that world. We have to do something here before we go anywhere anyway.”

Cid studied her. “Listen, kid, I don’t want you biting off more than you can chew, going out to so many other worlds like that; I know you want to find your friends, but if we’re talking navigational gummis, we’re talking more dangerous areas between worlds than you’ve been through so far.” He paused and frowned. “You should ask your friends here to look for you and stay here where it’s safe.”

“No way!” Kairi protested. “I’m going out there and looking for my friends; I don’t care if you’re worried! You don’t need to worry about me. I can handle myself, and I’ve got Donald and Goofy here to have my back.”

“She’s right!” Donald agreed. “It’s not like she’s out there all alone.”

“Yeah, we’ll keep Kairi safe,” Goofy added. “I promise you we’ll always do our best to protect her.”

Kairi smiled and glanced back at her friends. “Thanks guys… I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Cid nodded. “I understand. I just had to say it; I had to try.” He shook his head. “Say, if you guys are going to look around Traverse Town for a while, can you do me a favor? We’ll say it’s in exchange for working on your ship when you find that piece.”

“Hmm? What’s up?” Kairi asked.

“I know someone who gave me an old book to fix. I did my best to fix it, but there are still some pages missing. I don’t really have time to go to his house and give it back. If you come back to the Accessory Shop with me I’ll give it to you.”

Kairi nodded. “Where does he live?”

“Do you know the door in the Third District with the flame symbol on it?” Cid asked.

“Yeah… It’s locked though,” she said.

“There’s a way to get through; he lives in a house past there,” he explained. “I don’t know how he expected me to get it to him anyway; I don’t know how to get through.”

Kairi paused and looked and Donald and Goofy. She looked back. “Yeah. We can take it! We need to look all around anyway!” She glanced back at her friends, who nodded. Donald didn’t even look cranky at the thought; that was an improvement.

“Thanks!” Cid said. “Let’s go back to the shop then, and I’ll get it for you.”

0o0o0

Kairi stood in front of the strange stone door that had the flame symbol on it. The center flame was surrounded by other strange symbols that seemed like letters, though she certainly couldn’t read them. She looked the door over several times before turning to look at Donald and Goofy. “I don’t get it,” she said. “It’s just a door, but it won’t open!”

Donald tapped his foot impatiently. “Well, figure it out! We don’t have all day!”

Kairi turned back to the door, thinking back to what she had learned in the past few worlds; Donald was a mage; he had taught her several spells… One of which was fire. She summoned her Keyblade and aimed it at the door. “Fire!” she called as she cast the spell. She didn’t truly expect anything to happen, and she was shocked when it did; the flame started to glow and the door slid open to allow access. She stared blankly at it for a moment. She laughed. She turned to face Donald and Goofy, hands behind her back. “I guess that figures that out!” 

Donald’s mouth was hanging open in shock. Goofy paused in thought. “Gawrsh, Kairi, how’d you think of that?” he asked.

Kairi shrugged. “I don’t know, really; I just had to try something!” She turned around and started through the door. “C’mon, guys, we need to get going!”

It wasn’t long before the lighting got dim and they ran into water. There was a path of stones across the lake. Kairi took a step onto the first stone, followed by Donald and Goofy. The stone shifted under her feet and started moving. “Whoa!” she said in surprise. She looked forward and the other rocks were shifting around randomly as well. She studied their movements. “I’m going for it!” she told Donald and Goofy. “I’ll see you on the other side!”

She waited for the rocks to line up again; they were shifting at different speeds, so it wasn’t an easy task to wait for. She dashed across and made it to the other side, tripping when she reached the shore and landing on her face. She stood up and groaned. “Ugh, that wasn’t pleasant,” she said as she rubbed her sore nose.

Donald and Goofy were still struggling, so she turned her attention to where she was. There was a round, run-down house with a massive hole in the wall around the corner covered in a curtain. “Huh?” she wondered. The opposite wall was lined with boxes, and the small round window that looked in was dark. No one was inside. “I don’t think anyone’s home!” she called back to Donald and Goofy who were still struggling on the path. “I’m going to look around more.”

“Kairi, wait! You don’t know what’s in there.” Goofy tried.

“I’ll be fine. I’m not going inside; just looking around.” Kairi grinned and rounded the corner.

“This place is so dark and mysterious; it kind of reminds me of some of the caves back home.”

Kairi’s head whipped around. “Sora?” She looked for him. “Sora, where are you? I heard you!”

“Take care of yourself, okay, Kairi?”

“Sora, stop hiding! This isn’t very nice!” She looked around frantically again. She had heard him! He was around here somewhere, right? Or—no. It must have been her imagination again, like back in the jungle, and when she first woke up. A hallucination.  This place; this dark cave reminded her of the secret place; not as much as the waterway had, with its drawings on the walls, but just enough. The darkness was more similar. She crossed her arms and headed back to wait for Donald and Goofy; just as she rounded the corner, she almost ran right into them.

“Why do you look so sad all of the sudden?” Goofy asked her.

Kairi shook her head. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” She looked around. “I didn’t see a door; this curtain must lead to the only entrance… But there’s no light from inside, so I doubt that anyone’s home…”

“Let’s go inside and look,” Donald said. “If nothing else, we can leave the book and go.”

Kairi nodded. “Right!”

She led the way through the green curtain and walked into something she hadn’t expected. From the outside, this place looked completely empty; but in here, the room was filled with books and furniture and an air of chaos. In the center of the room stood a man with a long grey beard and glasses, clad in a blue gown and tall blue hat. “Oh my, I wasn’t expecting any guests!” he said as he turned to look at them.

“Oh! Hi,” Kairi said. “Sorry we didn’t knock. There wasn’t a door.” She held out the book. “Cid said that this was yours!”

“Oh, yes, of course!” he nodded. “Well, it’s not mine, but I don’t know whose it is.” He looked around the room. “Could you sit it on that table over there?”

Kairi looked to where he pointed. “Sure!” She walked over and placed it there. “I guess we should be going now…”

The man studied her. “You look like you know some about magic.”

“Not nearly as much as him!” She pointed at Donald. “He’s taught me some, but he’s… kind of an impatient teacher.”

“Hey!” Donald complained.

“Now, now, all you need is practice.” he said. “My name’s Merlin.”

“I’m Kairi, and this is Donald and Goofy,” Kairi said.

“You can feel free to practice here any time. I can take you upstairs now and you can try some of your magic out on some targets.” 

“Thank you, but we really should be going—“

“You know, it might be good if you knew how to use your magic better,” Donald interrupted. “You should go practice.”

She stared at Donald like he had three heads. Did he really just suggest that they take time off of their ever-growing list of missions to practice magic? Surely she was hearing things! Donald would never encourage added time. But maybe he was right… It might really help if she had a little better control of her magic. “Okay,” she said. “Where can I practice?”

0o0o0

Merlin led her into a room upstairs filled with furniture. “Say the word, and I’ll make this furniture move around to be targets. Feel free to take aim and try out your magic.”

“Oh… okay…” Kairi paused. “Go ahead.”

Soon tables and chairs and lamps started dancing around the room, jumping up and down and left and right. Kairi took aim and began to cast some spells on it. It wasn’t the easiest task; the targets moved around in unpredictable patterns. But it was helpful to be able to try out new ways of using the same old spells that Donald had taught her.

Eventually, they went back down to the main level. “Thank you, Merlin, for helping me practice!” Kairi said.

“Oh, it was the least I could do.” he said. “Feel free to come back any time. My doors are always open!”

Kairi grinned. All of the practice had made her melancholy mood fade away. She turned to Donald and Goofy. “We really should go now. We’ve still got to find the keyhole.” She turned back and waved at Merlin. “See you around sometime!”

Kairi led her companions out. “Thanks for giving me a chance to practice, Donald, Goofy; it really was helpful.”

“I just hope you learned something,” Donald said. “Otherwise it wasn’t worth it.”

“Oh, I learned stuff!” Kairi elbowed him. “Let’s get moving. There isn’t anything related to the keyhole here.”

She led them around the corner and back to face the moving stone pathway. Once again, they’d have to cross. It was a frustration, but nothing but a small little hurdle in the line of their journey… If only everything could be this simple.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note:This is where the story diverges and becomes an entirely different plot than Kingdom Hearts 1 beyond the differences that were already there. It just happened.

Chapter 16

Kairi was in good spirits when they walked through the stone door back out into the Third District. Donald and Goofy were bickering over something as usual, in their best-friends kind of way. It made Kairi miss listening to Riku and Sora argue over things, though they certainly didn’t argue nearly as much as her current companions. She had gotten used to Donald and Goofy being around, but she would still rather it be her two best friends.

As they reached the center of the courtyard, they were suddenly surrounded by heartless. Kairi summoned her Keyblade, and Donald and Goofy grabbed their weapons. They were ready to fight… But the heartless disappeared in puffs of smoky darkness, and Kairi saw movement thought she saw a flash of yellow and blue…

“That was a close one, huh, Kairi?” a familiar voice said from the side.

Kairi whipped around to face the friend she was beginning to question if she’d ever see again. “Riku!” she cried and rushed over. She stopped right in front of him. Same silver hair, turquoise eyes, cocky grin. “You’re here!”

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Riku said, “but I couldn’t find you. Guess it was just a matter of time, huh?”

“I’ve been looking for you too; and Sora, too! But I couldn’t find you!” She took a deep breath. “I was so worried that you were hurt! And after how you acted on the island—“

“Sorry about that,” Riku said with a sigh. “I got carried away…” He shook his head. “But that’s not the point! You’re okay, and I’m okay… where’s Sora? Isn’t he with you?”

“No…” Kairi looked down as she realized, “He’s not with you either.” 

Riku stared for a moment. “He’s not with you…” He looked like a bomb had been dropped; and then he just looked confused. “But if he’s not with you… how are you okay?”

She frowned and crossed her arms. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you not think I can take care of myself?”

“Honestly? Yeah. I haven’t seen you fight in a very long time.” Riku shrugged.

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and held it up. “I got this ‘Keyblade’ the night that the islands were destroyed,” she explained. “I’ve learned how to fight using it…” She spotted Donald and Goofy out of the corner of her eye, Donald tapping his foot impatiently as always. “And I’ve had some help, too,” she said. She grinned. “Riku, this is Donald and Goofy! They’ve been helping me look for you and Sora, and in return, I’m helping them look for their king!”

“Hiya, Riku,” Goofy said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Um, hello.” Riku studied them carefully. “Thanks for helping Kairi, but I can take it from here.”

“What?” Donald said in outrage.

“What are you talking about, Riku?” Kairi asked. “I’m not going to leave them behind. I promised to help them!” She crossed her arms. “You’re going to come with us, and we’re all going to find Sora together!” 

“He’s not coming with us!” Donald argued in outrage.

“Yes he is!” Kairi snapped. She looked back at Donald. “You promised you’d help me find them.”

Riku shook his head. “I’m not traveling with people who don’t want me around. Say Kairi; wasn’t this supposed to be our adventure?”

“Yes, but, with Sora too. And they can help us!” Kairi argued. “I wouldn’t have made it this far without them watching my back. I’m a better fighter now, but I never would have made it this far without help!”

Donald shook his head. “It’s us or him; who’s it going to be?”

“Uh, Donald, I don’t think that’s such a good idea…” Goofy said.

Kairi crossed her arms. “Fine then.” She walked over to Riku. “Okay, Riku. If it’s one or the other, I’m going with you. But I think if we all stick together, we stand a better chance.” She looked back and forth between everyone.

Riku looked relieved. “Thank you, Kairi; I knew I could count on you.” He held out a hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you now. You don’t need those weirdos.”

“Well… I thought those weirdos were my friends,” Kairi said. She looked back at them sadly. “I guess… I guess I was wrong.” She took his hand.

“Kairi, wait—“ Donald tried. He looked shocked and hurt.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Kairi said with a frown. “I hope you find your king… good luck.” She turned and started walking away. “Let’s go, Riku.”

Riku smiled. He looked so relieved; had he been worried she’d decide not to go with him? “There’s someone I need you to meet; someone who can help us find Sora.”

“I thought you made it here on your own,” Kairi questioned. “Isn’t that why you’re making me leave them behind?”

“Well, I did; all Maleficent did was tell me where to look. She should be able to do the same with Sora… but she said you were together…” He looked down. “She was wrong on that one.”

“Ah, Riku; you’ve brought your friend,” a tall woman clad entirely in black with a hat that formed horns said. She looked and sounded genuinely surprised. “But where’s the other one?”

“I know you were listening,” Riku snapped. “What’s the catch? You told me you’d help me if I helped you.”

“Really Riku?” Kairi questioned. She took a step back and crossed her arms. “You’re allowed to help someone in exchange for help finding me and I’m not allowed to help other people?”

“It’s not that, Kairi,” Riku said. “It’s really not.” His eyes were wide, and his breathing was increasing.

Kairi studied Maleficent closely, taking in her energy and pondering what her intent might be; she wasn’t getting good vibes from her at all. She was worried. Especially with the way that Maleficent was staring at her. “Oh, it’s nothing at all. I don’t need anything in return; just bring your friend on your journey, and the rest will pan out. Kairi, why don’t you come back with us? I imagine you would feel safest with your dear Riku, but perhaps it would be safer for you to wait somewhere that I can assure is safe.”

Kairi took a few steps back. “Riku, come here for a sec,” she said.

Riku came over. “What is it?”

“Do you seriously think this woman is good news?” Kairi whispered. “She’s looking at me like she’s about to eat me.”

“She was able to tell me where you were,” he said with a shrug. “Come on, Kairi; she’ll help us find Sora!”

Kairi stared at Riku for a few seconds before shaking her head. “No, Riku. I don’t trust her. Come on, let’s go back to Donald and Goofy!”

“Oh, so they’re good enough and my help isn’t, even though it’s gotten results?” Riku argued.

“Donald and Goofy don’t look at me like I’m some kind of prize that was just won!” Kairi snapped. “No, Riku; let’s go.” Riku’s eyes got even wider and his breathing sped up more. “Come on, are you really going to trust some stranger over me? Look, we don’t even have to go back to Donald and Goofy; just… not her.”

Riku stared at Kairi for a moment before nodding. “Right. Just you and me.”

“What?” Maleficent said in outrage. She gritted her teeth. 

“Kairi’s not going with you; well, I’m not going anywhere without Kairi,” Riku said. He shook his head. “Thank you for your help, but you said you didn’t need anything in return.”

“I guess we’ll just have to do this the hard way,” Maleficent said as the room grew dark. “Princess, you’re coming with me!”

Kairi spotted heartless popping up all around. “Riku!” She rushed closer to him. “I was right!” She summoned her Keyblade.

Riku went to grab his sword, but it was gone. “Huh? Where’s my sword?”

“Don’t worry! I’ll protect you!” Kairi promised. She whacked away some heartless as they jumped in.

“Kairi, wait!” Donald yelled as he and Goofy came running up the ramp.

“Look out, Riku; behind you!” Goofy yelled.

Riku turned and held out his hand; a Keyblade appeared within it. “Huh?” he asked. 

“Thunder!” Donald yelled as he cast the spell, knocking more heartless away.

“What’s this?” Maleficent asked. She gritted her teeth a stepped back. “I’ll have to find another way…” she muttered as she disappeared in green flames.

“Stop questioning it and fight!” Kairi ordered.

Riku nodded. “Right!”

With four people fighting, the heartless fell fairly quickly. They were all left breathing hard from the battle, but all were relieved.

“Donald! Goofy! You followed me!” Kairi cheered.

“I really was bluffing when I said it was us or him,” Donald explained. “I really expected you’d come with us. Goofy pointed out that it would be better to have Riku along too than to not have you around.”

Goofy nodded. “Yeah. All for one and one for all, remember?”

Kairi grinned. “Thanks, guys.” She turned to Riku. “See? They’re not so bad.”

Riku stared at them for a moment. He looked back at the Keyblade in his hand, then back at Donald and Goofy, then at Kairi. “I… I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. He looked at Donald and Goofy again. “Thank you for helping us,” Riku said.

“Come on, Riku,” Kairi said, holding out a hand. “Four people watching each other’s back are better than being alone, right?”

Riku stared again for a moment before nodding. “Right,” he decided. “I’ll go with you guys.”

Kairi grinned. She turned to Donald and Goofy. “Sorry I was going to leave you guys behind; you understand, right? He’s my old friend, and I had to make sure he was safe… and I felt pretty betrayed by you guys.”

Donald frowned and looked down. “I’m sorry, Kairi. I shouldn’t have given you an ultimatum.”

“Don’t worry about it, Kairi,” Goofy said.

“But you guys; you came and saved me!” She laughed. “See, Riku? I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.”

Riku nodded. “I think we got off to a bad start. I hope I can fix that.”

Kairi looked around. “Now all we have to do is find the keyhole,” she said. “But I don’t know where else to look…”

“Maybe Leon and the others found something out?” Goofy suggested.

“Good thought!” Kairi said. “But where are they?”

Riku sighed and looked at the Keyblade in his hand once more. “The Keyblade…” He looked relieved. “I guess you aren’t the only one, huh, Kairi?”

Kairi looked over. “Hey, when did you get that?”

“When the heartless attacked,” Riku explained. “Now we can really go out there and find Sora!” He shook his head. “I’m sorry about Maleficent; I was a bad judge of character when it came to her.”

Kairi nodded. “You were; but that’s okay, I was there to get you out of that mess… but what did she mean by ‘princess?’”

“I don’t know…” Riku admitted.

Kairi sighed. “Oh well. We’ll worry about it if she shows up again.”

For now, things had come together so well; she had been afraid for a while, but in the end, everything seemed to be working out. If only things could keep going this well…

0o0o0

(Elsewhere)

“Interesting… very interesting,” Solace marveled. He stared into the mirror in front of him showing everything going on in the outside world. His home was safe again; those manipulative figureheads that called themselves the High Council of Light believed that he would never come back. The spire high above the worlds would not be disturbed.

“Things took their own direction, and everything changed on its own. Remarkable. I’m dying to see what comes next…” He knew now that this would aid his plans. “What do you think’s next, Sora?”

But Solace knew that the boy wouldn’t answer, and he knew that it didn’t even matter. He glanced back at the unconscious boy. He looked so peaceful… It was like he knew. No matter what happened now, nothing would ever be the same again.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

It didn’t take long for them to find Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith. They had gathered in the small house in the Third District once more, so they were very close by.

Kairi led the way into the house, followed closely behind by the still nervous Riku as well as Donald and Goofy. “Hi guys,” Kairi said to the other trio.

Aerith looked over. She spotted Riku. “Oh, hello; I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

“I’m Riku,” he said.

“Oh! Kairi’s friend!” Yuffie said.

Introductions were spread all around, and soon things fell silent. Kairi broke it with a question. “So, did you find out anything else about the keyhole?” she asked.

Aerith shook her head. “Nothing directly, but we did hear a rumor. There’s a bell over the Gizmo Shop in the Second District, and if it’s rung three times, something’s said to happen.”

“Something? Like what?” Kairi wondered.

“None of us know,” Aerith replied.

“So, a bell above the Gizmo Shop…” Kairi paused. “Okay! We’ll go check that out. Maybe that’s what we’re looking for.”

“What?” Donald asked. “That sounds useless!”

“Well we don’t have any other leads.” Kairi snapped back. “So we’re going to check it out.”

Riku watched the two of them warily, paying close attention to Donald; it was obvious that he was still judging Kairi’s new friends and wasn’t getting the best impression from the impatient duck. Kairi couldn’t blame him; there were times that Donald really got on her nerves, and that was what was happening now. Donald could be hard to deal with; and right now, there were lots of distractions from their end goal, and he didn’t like it; and when he didn’t like something, he could be a real jerk about it.

Kairi turned to Aerith again. “Thank you for the help again. We’ll figure this out; I promise we’ll keep this world safe.”

They left the house and went out into the Third District to head for the Second to the Gizmo Shop. “So… what was this about Keyholes?” Riku asked.

“Oh! You weren’t with us when we found out about them!” Kairi remembered. She went on to explain what she knew about them, which wasn’t very much at all.

“Right,” Riku said. “We definitely have to find them. Yes, we have to find Sora, but we have to do our best to help protect other worlds too. That’s part of being a Keyblade wielder.”

Kairi nodded. “We’ll find Sora soon, and then he can help us too!”

Donald sighed loudly and Kairi could tell that he was against the thought of someone else coming along but willing to concede to it to keep them all together. She knew he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, and she knew that things were going to be a bit tense between all of them for a while after that little misunderstanding that they had. Everyone but Goofy had done wrong in that situation, and, well, Goofy was just very good at being the voice of reason so it made sense.

Kairi did her best to ignore Donald and to make sure that Riku was still nearby. She was mildly afraid that he was just going to disappear at any given moment without a word or trace. Logically she knew that was unlikely, but emotionally… he had disappeared into nothing with only a few words of embracing the darkness back on the Destiny Islands; who was to say it wouldn’t happen again?

0o0o0

They passed through the Gizmo Shop, fighting heartless along the way. On the other side, there was a ladder that led up, presumably to the roof. Kairi rushed to climb up it, quickly followed behind. Once she reached the top, she looked around. To her right was a fence that had a hole in it. She headed cautiously in that direction, watching for heartless along the way. “I think the bell is in here,” Kairi suggested. She walked over to it.

“Isn’t this a bit too easy?” Riku muttered. He walked over to the edge of the building and looked down.

In the opening was a rope. Kairi tugged on the rope and a bell rung. “There’s one…” She rang it two more times.

“Hey, something’s happening down there.” Riku pointed.

Kairi rushed over to look down. The fountain below was glowing, and a brief jet of water came from in front of it. “Let’s get down there!” Kairi said as she dashed towards the ladder and headed down it. 

Through the Gizmo Shop and out the door, across the raised walk and down it, Kairi spotted a keyhole in the mosaic wall of the fountain. “There it is!” she cheered as she rushed down the steps.

Suddenly with a thud, a purple mechanical heartless fell from the sky above. It quickly pieced itself together and swung its arm at her. “I thought we beat this thing already!” Donald shouted.

“I did too,” Kairi said, “but it looks like we’re going to have to again!” She barely dodged an attack and summoned her Keyblade, running straight at the monster. She didn’t dodge out of the way of another attack and ended up flung through the air and slammed against a wall.

“Kairi!” Riku panicked and rushed over in her direction, barely dodging attacks himself.

“I’m fine,” Kairi said. She stood up and brushed herself off. That really hurt, but she couldn’t let it show. She grinned. “We need to get back in there and fight!” She rushed back at the monster like nothing happened, doing her best not to let the pain slow her down.

Riku nodded and complied, though he seemed more shaken by seeing that than Kairi herself was from experiencing it. She got a feeling that he would be processing it more once the fight was done.

Suddenly the creature stopped moving for a few moments; then its body started to shift around, the torso flipping over, the arms and legs swapping places. The visor of the head’s armor popped open and exposed two yellow eyes. It hesitated only for a moment before attacking more powerfully than ever.

“Whoa!” Kairi said as she barely slid out of the way of a swinging arm. She shook her head. “Donald! Goofy! Remember to focus on the limbs! Riku, help me attack the torso!” she shouted

“Right!” everyone said and did as they were told.

Together, they took the monster down, and in one final crash it fell to the ground before releasing a bright and shining heart into the air and fading away. The courtyard fell empty and silent. Kairi took a few deep breaths and winced. “Ow,” she whispered as Goofy threw her a potion. “Thanks, Goofy!” she said happily.

She pointed her Keyblade towards the keyhole. She hoped it worked like the other times. It did; her sword emitted a beam of light that connected with the keyhole; there was a click, and slowly the keyhole faded away leaving behind a blue butterfly mural in the mosaic tiles. “Well… that’s that,” she said. She walked over to the fountain and touched the wall. Something caught her eye from inside the water; a green object. She picked it up. “Hey guys, it’s a gummi block!” she said as she picked it up and turned it over to look at it. “It looks like it might match the other one!”

“Really?” Goofy asked happily.

Riku came over to Kairi, looking extremely worried. “Are you okay, Kairi?” he worried.

“I’m fine,” she assured. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve taken hits before and been fine, and I’m sure I will again.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Riku said as he shook his head. “You could have been really hurt!” He put a hand gently on her cheek for a moment. He still looked frightened, like he had almost lost her.

“I’m fine, Riku; really!” Kairi assured.

Riku lowered his hand and nodded. He grinned. “Since when can you fight so well? I don’t know as I’ve seen you fight in years.”

Kairi laughed. “Yeah, and I feel stupid for that now.” She shook her head. “I’ve had to learn fast. And without Donald and Goofy to back me up, I really don’t think I would have made it this far.” She sighed. “That’s why I wanted you to come with us rather than going off on our own. I know that you and I could take care of each other, but you know; they’re my friends too now… And I’m sure they’ll be yours too.”

“Right.” Riku looked down. “I’m sorry I acted like that back when I first found you. I guess I was… jealous. And I was afraid you were leaving me behind.”

“What? I’d never leave you behind; don’t be silly!” Kairi assured. She put a hand on his shoulder. “You, me, and Sora; we’re a team, remember? You and I need to stick together and find him, and then together, we can figure out a way to get our home back.”

“It’s so strange; we wanted to explore the universe so badly, but we always thought we’d be able to go home,” Riku said. “And now that we can’t—after all that’s happened… all I want to do is go back to that little island far from land and watch another sunset with you and Sora.”

Kairi frowned. “We will; I know we will.” She smiled. “And I’m sure Sora’s looking for us, too! We’ll all be back together.” She looked back at the gummi block in her hand. “We need to get this to Cid so that he can work on our ship; then we can get out there to other worlds and look for Sora!” She turned around and saw that Donald and Goofy were waiting patiently, talking quietly to each other. “Let’s go, guys!” she said.

0o0o0

“You found the other half of the block?” Cid said in surprise. “How’d you manage that?”

“Long story,” Kairi replied.

“Well, I’ll get right on it,” Cid said.

Soon, Cid had the ship all set. “Is it ready to go?” Donald asked him.

“It’s all ready now; and I included a warp gummi on the house,” Cid said. “If you bring me more blocks, I’ll install them for free; but from now on, if I give you something, I’ll need something for it.”

“Fair enough,” Kairi said.

Cid turned to Riku. “You take good care of her, kid; the two of you need to stick together to stay safe.”

“No problem,” Riku said.

“Well, if everything’s ready, we should go tell Leon and the others what happened; then we can leave.” Kairi said. “So let’s go!”


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

After Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith were informed of the keyhole being sealed, they headed on their way to a new world, whatever world might come their way. Kairi had no idea where they might be going or how long it would take to get there, but she was ready for whatever might come from it. Riku stared out of the cockpit in wonder as they traveled; he was finally seeing what he had always wanted to see… the places beyond their tiny little islands. It was nice to see him so happy… but both of them lived in the knowledge that they would far rather have Sora there with them to experience all of this.

They had passed through a swirling vortex that had taken them to a new place where the space around them was a different color. Kairi got the feeling that they would soon run into another world; and it happened. The world below was a massive desert with only a town and a cave to be seen among the endless waves of sand. They knew now that they had to land here and find the keyhole to seal. Now there was no way around it with every world they might come across. They day might come when they could take a break and rest, but for now, the need to find Sora and to seal the keyholes was far too dire.

0o0o0

Once they landed, Kairi led the way into the desert town. “This place is so bizarre,” Kairi noted. She looked around the empty streets. “I wonder why there’s no one around.”

Clouds of darkness burst all around. “Heartless!” Donald shouted.

“I’d guess that would be why,” Riku noted as he summoned his Keyblade. 

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and they all prepared to fight. The battle was fairly short with four people fighting. 

Kairi spotted someone hiding in the corner behind some boxes. She walked over to them in concern; a young woman dressed in turquoise clothing wearing a crown stood up from behind them. “Are they gone?” she asked.

Kairi nodded. “They’re gone. Are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” the woman said. “Jafar sent those minions out to look for me; they’re very strange, like nothing I’ve ever seen!”

“Yeah, they are strange; someone’s after you?” Kairi worried.

The woman nodded. “My name is Jasmine,” she said. “Thank you for helping me.”

“You’re welcome!” she said. “I’m Kairi; and this is Donald, Goofy, and Riku.”

“Thank you all; I must be going,” she said. “I don’t want to stay in one place so that Jafar can find me.”

“We can help keep you safe!” Kairi offered.

“What?” Donald protested.

“Oh, hush, Donald; it’d just be until we get her somewhere away from where this ‘Jafar’ can get her!” Kairi said.

Jasmine shook her head. “I must go alone; I don’t want anyone else to get involved in this. It’s too dangerous.” She walked out from behind the boxes. “Thank you again for helping me; may you have safe travels.” She walked off through an archway.

Kairi watched where she went. “I feel like she’s in a lot of danger,” she said. “I wish she would have let us help her.”

“We can keep our eyes open,” Riku said.

“In the meantime, we have more important things to do,” Donald said, tapping his foot impatiently. “We need to—“

“I know, I know; look for the king and the keyholes,” Kairi finished. “I know what we need to do; I just feel like this is important!”

“You think everything’s important,” Donald said irritably.

Kairi crossed her arms. “That’s because there are a lot of things that are important other than just our objectives; I mean, we didn’t even know how important the keyholes were until very recently, and I sealed two before I knew what they were at all!” She sighed. “I know what you’re going to say about ‘meddling’ and the ‘world order’; but interacting with these strangers in their worlds has led us to keyholes before. No matter what we do, by being here at all, we’re going to change things.”

“I know that! But we have more important things to do than help strangers!” Donald protested.

“Gawrsh, guys; can you stop fighting?” Goofy asked. He looked exhausted by all of it. “Standing here arguing isn’t going to solve anything at all. Whether we help Jasmine or not, we need to get moving.”

Kairi looked at Goofy and then back at Donald. She uncrossed her arms. “Fine. Let’s go check out the town,” she suggested.

“And if we run into Jasmine again and she needs help, we’ll help her,” Riku added. “If not, then we won’t worry about it.”

Kairi nodded, and they headed through the archway that Jasmine had passed through.

0o0o0

On the other side were more heartless surrounding another person, this one a man clad in a purple vest, tan pants, and a small red hat. As they ran to try to help him, he pulled and old-fashioned oil lamp from his pocket. He rubbed it, and said “Genie, get rid of these monsters!” The lamp emitted a wave of blue smoke and out came a blue genie.

“Wish number one, coming right up!” the genie said, and in a flash, all of the heartless that had surrounded the man disappeared. “And that one was a doozy, if I must say.”

Kairi rushed over to them. “Are you alright?” she asked the man.

“I’m fine,” he assured. He looked at them. “You guys were going to fight those monsters? I stood no chance against them alone.”

“We were, but it seems like you had it under control,” Kairi said.

“My name is Aladdin,” he introduced. “It’s so funny seeing new faces around here.”

“Hmm?” Kairi said, trying to sound dismissive. “We’re just from out of town. I’m Kairi.”

“I’m Riku.”

“Donald.”

“And I’m Goofy!”

Aladdin studied them carefully. The genie interrupted. “Ready and waiting for wish number two!”

“Wishes?” Donald asked.

“I’m the one and only Genie of the lamp!” the blue creature said. “Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and out comes Genie to grant your dearest wishes! Today’s winner is Aladdin! Congratulations!” The Genie danced around Aladdin and confetti appeared above his head.

“Any wishes?” Donald asked again.

The Genie waved a finger in front of Donald’s face. “Patience, my fine feathered friend! You get…” Genie flew up in the air and created two copies of himself. Each held up three fingers. “Any  _ three _ wishes! One, two, three wishes—then I make like a banana and split!” He flew behind Aladdin. “Our lucky winner made his first wish—that means he has two left! So, master, what’ll you have for wish number two?”

“Hmm,” Aladdin paused in thought. “How about making me a fabulously wealthy prince…?”

“Oooh! Money! Royalty! Fame!” The Genie applauded. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Gawrsh, really…?” Goofy asked.

“Okay, you asked for it! A hundred servants, a hundred camels laden in gold! Just say the word, delivery in thirty minutes or less or your meal is free! I’ll even throw in a free frappe!” The Genie moved closer.

Aladdin chuckled. “No thanks. We’ll wait before I make any more wishes.”

“Why do you want to be a prince?” Kairi asked.

“Well you see there’s this girl in Agraba named Jasmine… She’s a princess, but I’m… she’d never fall for someone like me.” He looked down.

“Jasmine?” Kairi asked. “We ran into someone named Jasmine earlier! She was in trouble. She said someone named Jafar was following her.”

“What? Jasmine’s in trouble?” he asked. He looked around. “Which way did she go?”

“She actually headed this direction, but, well; there are so many exits, who knows where she went after that?” Kairi said.

“I have to go find her!” Aladdin said. He turned and looked around. “Thank you for your help. I’m going to start this way! Best of luck in whatever you’re trying to do!”

Kairi watched him run off in an exit to the west. She sighed. Aladdin seemed so worried about Jasmine, and she became more worried as well. She tried not to let it get to her. She was trying to keep out of things like Donald and Goofy wanted her to; she was trying to stick to their goal like Riku wanted her to; but all of it was so complicated and her sense of right and wrong was too strong for her to sit back and watch. “Let’s move on,” Kairi said. “If we run into them again, we should help them.”

Donald shook his head. “But Kairi—“

“She’s right,” Riku said. “There’s something to be said about fate; what were the chances of running into someone who knew Jasmine? Maybe they can help us find the keyhole and look for Sora and your king.”

Kairi nodded. “They know this world better than we do. I don’t know if we can directly ask about the keyhole, but maybe they know somewhere special that it might be; like the place Tarzan showed us for the keyhole in the jungle.”

Donald sighed. “Alright. But only if we run into them again! We’re not going to seek them out!”

“Fine,” Kairi said. She looked around. “Which way should we go next?”

Goofy looked around. “Gawrsh, I don’t know. There are so many directions.”

“Let’s go this way,” Riku said, pointing towards the east. “It’s the closest exit.”

“Good idea!” Kairi said. They headed that direction.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

“Now what?” Kairi asked. They had searched the entire town and there was no sign of the keyhole, Sora, or the king. There had also been no real sign of anyone at all; it seemed that everyone was in hiding from the heartless that roamed the city streets. It seemed like there was no one to ask anything, and there was nowhere else obvious to go than out into the great desert beyond the city walls.

“I guess we’ll have to go out there,” Riku said, gesturing at the desert.

Suddenly, Aladdin appeared from a nearby building. “Jafar took Jasmine into the desert!” he explained as he ran up to him. “But he’s working with those strange creatures! I don’t know if—“

“We can help you!” Kairi said. Donald sighed, but Kairi continued. “We needed to go into the desert anyway, and we don’t know the way.”

Donald blinked a few times before nodding. He seemed to realize that it would indeed be the best course of action to take.

Aladdin nodded. “I’m sure he was headed to the Cave of Wonders. Let’s go!”

Kairi and the others followed him as he ran out into the expansive desert.

0o0o0

They soon reached a very bizarre cave opening; the cave stuck out of the ground and looked like a grey-violet tiger’s head, complete with fangs. “This is it: the Cave of Wonders! I’m sure that Jafar took Jasmine in there!”

Kairi looked at Riku who shrugged; he didn’t seem too nervous about entering, so she decided she’d do her best not to be shaken by the concept of entering what looked like an animal’s mouth. “Alright. Let’s go!” Kairi said.

She followed Aladdin into the cave. Inside it was obvious that this cave must have been manmade; there were pillars everywhere, the walls were perfectly squared off, and there was a pit to the left that appeared to go off into nowhere. It was unsettling, but she knew that they needed to get in there if they were going to be able to help Jasmine.

Not much was said as they passed through the passageways; everyone was being too cautious and paying too much attention to their bizarre surroundings to come up with much of a conversation. 

“Be careful in this next area,” Aladdin said. “It’s filled with traps.”

Kairi nodded. “Right!” she said.

They headed in and passed through the treacherous tunnel with little difficulty; Aladdin seemed to know the way well, and he warned them of each trap as they came up to them.

Then they encountered a problem. They ran into a pillar blocking the entrance. “That wasn’t there before,” Aladdin said skeptically. “We need to find another way!” He looked around and pointed to a staircase leading now. “There are tunnels below. I wonder if we can get where we need to go through there.”

0o0o0

The tunnels below were full of puzzles, but they weren’t too difficult to get through, and they walked up a staircase that led to a room on the other side of the giant pillar. On the opposite side of the room there was an opening that led out into another. They walked through that archway and found themselves inside a giant room filled with treasure. “Wow!” Donald said. “Look at all of that gold!”

“I know, isn’t it amazing?” Aladdin noted. He shook his head. “But we need to keep moving. There’s a chamber deeper in, and I’ll bet anything that is where Jafar took her.” He looked around. “It’s this way!”

As he led the way into the other room, Kairi paused for a moment to look back at the room behind them. Donald was standing staring at the piles of gold. “Donald! Come on; we need to get going!”

He shook his head and snapped out of it, quickly running over to catch up. Aladdin waited for them to catch up before passing through the archway. “Jafar!” he yelled as they spotted a tall, thin man wearing a black cloak. In the man’s arms was a person. “Let Jasmine go!”

“Jasmine!” Kairi called to her; but there was no response. Upon further examination, Jasmine was unconscious. Kairi shook her head. “Let her go!”

“Fools,” Jafar said. “Can’t you see that it’s too late?” Aladdin ran towards him and all of them followed. Jafar sat Jasmine on the ground carefully before holding up his staff. “You all should be simple enough to handle; and Maleficent would be quite satisfied if I managed to get two princesses at once,” he said.

Kairi blinked again and looked around. “Two?” she wondered. Jasmine was the only princess present at that moment.

She didn’t have much time to ponder the comment, as Jafar shot a beam of flames towards her. She summoned her Keyblade and clenched her teeth. She needed to get to Jasmine to get her out of here to somewhere safe! But how could she communicate that that was her goal without alerting Jafar to it? She couldn’t; no, she’d have to do that on her own, and she wasn’t sure how… but she had to try!

She looked around the massive cavern; the walls were quite far away, and there was a raised ledge upon which Jasmine now lay. She managed to sneak past a majority of the attacks and get out of the way while Jafar was busy attacking the others. But as she got closer, a dark cloaked figure appeared in a wave of green fire: Maleficent. “No!” Kairi yelled as she ran faster to try to make it there to rescue Jasmine; but Maleficent had come and gone taking Jasmine with her by the time she made it there.

She was silent for a moment before turning around. “Jafar! Why did you let Maleficent take her?” she demanded.

Jafar turned around to face her. “Oh, it is quite useful for me in the end,” he said.

In that moment, a hole appeared below Jafar. He didn’t even have a chance to process what was happening before he disappeared within it.

“That was… handy,” Kairi acknowledged. She climbed up on the ledge and looked around.

“Jasmine? Jasmine!” Aladdin called as he looked around.

“She’s gone,” Kairi said. “Someone came and took her away… I’m sorry I didn’t get to her in time…” She looked down.

“You couldn’t help it,” Riku said. “There was no way you could have made it over there in time.”

Aladdin nodded gravely. “Do you know where she was taken?”

Kairi shook her head. She glanced behind her and spotted something; the keyhole. “Give me a second and then I’ll be down!” Kairi said as she turned and walked over to it. She held up her Keyblade, and like every other time, a beam of light came from the tip and there was the sound of a lock clicking. “There,” she said.

Just then the cave started shaking. She ran back over to where they all were. “We need to get out of here!” Riku said. “The place is going to collapse!”

“But—Jasmine!” Aladdin protested.

“No, it’s no use; she’s not here anymore,” Kairi said. “Let’s go!”

0o0o0

They managed to escape the cave in time and made it back to Agraba, ending up at Aladdin’s house. He sat glumly on the steps, looking down. Genie appeared beside him and looked at him sympathetically. “One wish is all it will take to get her back,” he offered. “And you still have one wish left.”

Aladdin nodded. “I do have one wish left… I wish for your freedom, Genie!”

“Al!” Genie said in surprise. There was much flashing of light and in a whirl of smoke, there stood Genie with legs. “Why’d you do that? We could have gotten Jasmine back for you!”

“I made a promise to you, Genie; and I keep my promises.” Aladdin looked at Kairi and the others. “You guys; you know where the person took her.”

Kairi looked at Donald and Goofy warily. “Well, not exactly, but… We do have a way to look.”

“Take me with you!” he said.

“No,” Kairi said. “We can’t do that…”

“But we can look for her!” Riku said. “We promise that we’ll do our best to find her and bring her back here.”

“That’s all I can ask, isn’t it?” Aladdin said with a sad laugh. “Thanks, you guys,” he said. “And thank you for trying to help me save Jasmine…”

“I’m sorry, Aladdin,” Kairi said sadly. “I just wasn’t fast enough…”

“No, I don’t blame you…” Aladdin said. “Thank you for looking for her. Best of luck to you in whatever you are doing and wherever you are going.”

Kairi nodded. “We’d better go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for two quick chapters. Like so many Kingdom Hearts fans, I hate Agraba and want nothing to do with that desert, but it was necessary for the story. If it helps, the next world is really long!


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Kairi sat there in the ship wondering what Jafar had meant when he said ‘two princesses at once.’ Jasmine had been the only princess there, right? It had reminded her of something Maleficent had said back in Traverse Town… Were these people saying that she was a princess? How could that be possible? She wasn’t a princess; sure she was the mayor’s daughter, but that didn’t make her a princess; and she’d never been anywhere but the islands—

Wait a minute. She had been somewhere else. She had been born somewhere far away; another world. She was the reason that this whole journey began. Riku had said that if she’d never come to the islands, he never would have started thinking about things like other worlds being out there. She was the reason that they were here together in this gummi ship, him asleep where he had been staring out of the cockpit in awe (though trying to play it cool and seem like he wasn’t excited; it was endearing to see the small smile sneaking onto his face from time to time before being quickly shoved away.) Sure, things wouldn’t have happened if their island hadn’t been destroyed, but if they hadn’t had these plans they wouldn’t have been as prepared for this regardless of the fact that they weren’t very prepared anyway.

But regardless of all of that; regardless of the fact that they had wanted to leave home anyway, Kairi longed for nothing more than the feeling of soft sand against her feet, her comfortable bed covers, the ocean waves lapping against the shore—

“We’re at another world,” Donald announced as they approached a strange sphere.

Kairi looked out the window. “That’s something; where’s the land?” She examined the world below thoroughly; all she could see was water surrounded by a few bordering rocks. It was like an ocean, and she saw nothing to stand on. She shook her head. “We can’t go down there; there’s nowhere for us to go!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Donald said. “Some of my magic will get us through this.”

“We’re going underwater?” Riku asked as he woke up. “But how is that possible? We can’t exactly breathe underwater.”

“I’ll make it so we blend in; it’s simple enough.”

Kairi shook her head and crossed her arms. “We can’t go down there. No way,” she said.

“I thought you wanted to search  _ every _ world,” Donald said; he sounded annoyed. “Besides, we have to find and seal the keyhole!”

“You don’t get it,” Kairi said nervously. “I can barely swim.”

“What?” Donald said in disbelief. “You swam fine back in Traverse Town and the jungle!”

“That was a few feet,” Kairi said. “Most of the time all I can do is keep my head above water.”

Riku looked over at her. “You can do it, Kairi; if Donald can make it so that we can breathe under water, then you don’t have to worry about drowning… I can help you stay safe; if you can get around at all, I can do the fighting.”

“But—“ Kairi looked down. She was scared, she’d admit it. That was why she was so reluctant. It went beyond the logical reason and into deeper memory of long ago. When she was a child and had first arrived at the islands, she landed in the ocean. She remembered the water rushing over her body as she flailed around trying to get her head back to the surface; but she couldn’t. If her mother hadn’t happened to be at the beach and saw her land and her struggling, she wouldn’t be standing here right now. Ever since, she had always been a bit afraid of the ocean waves; she was comfortable in the safety of a boat if she didn’t think about the possibility of falling out. But now looking down at nothing but water, her heart sank as she knew she would be nothing but a burden for them; but she knew that there was no other choice. “Fine,” she decided. “But you know, I think I’ll stand out more than you are thinking, if we run into reasons that we’d have to blend in. People underwater would know how to swim.”

“Gawrsh, Kairi; if you’re really that worried you can stay up here in the ship,” Goofy offered. He looked very concerned and sympathetic; he always had the air of someone who understood fears.

“What?” Donald protested. “But we need her Keyblade to seal the keyhole!”

“I have a Keyblade too,” Riku said. He looked at Kairi.

“I’m not staying behind!” Kairi said. “Don’t worry, I’ll get over it. I’ll be alright…” Unspoken was the thought of being more afraid to be alone than to be underwater. Being alone, without anyone to count on; that was terrifying. She wouldn’t be where she was if she hadn’t found Donald and Goofy so quickly. She couldn’t bear for anything to happen to them or Riku while she was up there with no way to know. “So do your magic; we’ll manage it together!”

“That’s the spirit!” Donald said.

Riku came over to Kairi and squeezed her hand. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

“Thanks, Riku.” As much as Kairi took pride in the fact that she could take care of herself now, it was comforting to know that one of the people who had made her that promise from the very beginning was here with her now and able to do so; Riku… Riku was always so strong. She knew that as long as he was around, no matter what might happen everything would be okay.

0o0o0

“Whoa!” Kairi said as they appeared in the water in a puff of bubbles. She looked around; she was doing her best to keep calm, but it felt very unnatural to be breathing here in the water. She couldn’t make herself take deep, calming breaths.

She looked around cautiously. They weren’t out in the open expanse with nothing to see; they seemed to be in some kind of cave, the grey walls adorned with corals and starfish. She swung her arms to turn in the water and was surprised by how effective it was. She spotted Donald and Goofy. “Uh…” she said in disbelief. Donald had tentacles, and Goofy appeared to be a sea turtle; but each maintained their heads. “This is your way of blending in?” She gestured at them.

“Kairi, look!” Riku said with a laugh. He pointed at her.

She looked down at the lower half of her body and was surprised by what she saw; her legs were no more; her lower half was instead formed into a single tubular shape, and upon closer examination, she realized that she was covered in magenta scales and had a lighter pink fin at the bottom of her body. “I’m a—I’m a mermaid!” She looked at Riku; the bottom half of his body resembled the back half of a dolphin. “And you’re a merperson too!” Riku nodded. He swam around some. “You look like a natural,” Kairi observed.

“Well, are you going to try to swim or not?” Riku asked her. “Come on, it’s nothing!” He held out his hand to her.

“O-okay… Here it goes.” She did what her body told her to do when she thought ‘swim’. She kicked her tail, not putting much movement into her arms; that seemed awkward. She was surprised; she moved easily through the water, like she was meant to do so. She quickly made it over to Riku and grabbed his hand. She giggled. “That was actually… kind of fun!”

Riku grinned. “See? This isn’t going to be so bad after all, now is it?”

Kairi nodded. She turned to face Donald and Goofy, who were watching with expressions of endearment. She did her best not to blush; they looked like two parents watching their children learning something new for the first time. She looked around and spotted the exit of the cave. “I guess that’s the way out,” she said.

“Come on Sebastian!” a girl said from outside the cave. A young mermaid with abundant red hair swam into the cave.

“Slow down Ariel! Don’t leave me behind!” A crab yelled as he almost ran into Donald. He yelled in surprise.

“Relax, Sebastian.” Ariel looked at them. “They don’t look like one of them. Right, Flounder?”

“I don’t know,” a yellow fish said, hiding behind Ariel. “There’s something weird about them.”

“Weird? What do you mean?” Kairi asked in mock shock.

Riku swam to next to her. “We’re new around here. We came from an ocean far away; so don’t mind us, we’re just exploring.”

“New around here? Hmm… You should let me show you around!” Ariel said. “I’m Ariel,” she introduced as what they’d already overheard. “This is Sebastian and Flounder.” She gestured at her sea life friends.

“I’m Kairi; and this is Donald, Goofy, and Riku,” she said. “We truly would appreciate some guidance.”

“You do all seem a little bit… different. Where are you from?” Ariel asked.

Kairi tried not to laugh nervously. “We’re from kind of far away.”

“Hmm…” she hummed curiously.

“Look out!” Flounder called as he faced the entrance of the cave. A series of jellyfish heartless filed in.

“Ack!” Sebastian said in shock as he headed to a clamshell in the center of the room followed by Flounder. They swam into it and slammed it shut. Ariel fled to an opening on the opposite side of the cave.

Kairi and Riku summoned their Keyblades. “Let’s do this!” Riku said as he swam closer to Kairi protectively.

Kairi backed closer to him, but she was ready to fight what might come at her. And she had to: using her magic, she managed to knock back the jellyfish and destroy them with relative ease without having to move around very much. Riku swooped all around her, guarding her from any of the heartless moving closer to her. Donald and Goofy focused on fighting their own nearby enemies.

A few more simple attacks that made the others look like naturals and the heartless were gone.

Ariel came swimming out from her hiding place. “Sebastian, Flounder; the creatures are gone now.”

The clamshell peeked open and out swam her two little friends. “Phew! That was too close.”

“Those creatures followed us here!” Ariel exclaimed. “Without you guys, we would have been goners!”

Sebastian looked worried as he scanned the room. “They might be back at the palace too!”

Ariel nodded and frowned. “We’d better head back right away!”

Flounder cowered behind her. “But, what if we run into more on our way back?”

Ariel looked at Riku and the others. “I’m sorry, but we need your help. Please come back to the palace with us!”

“Right!” Riku said. “You can count on us!”

“The trident markers lead the way there. We won’t get lost as long as we follow them!” She pointed at the symbols on the walls.

“Okay,” Kairi said cautiously. She swam carefully nearby Riku and watched as Ariel swam towards the exit, followed by Donald and Goofy.

“Are you okay, Kairi?” Riku whispered.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kairi said, though her heart was pounding being surrounded by so much water. “Let’s follow them!”

Riku studied her carefully, and it was obvious from his frown that he knew that she was lying and that she was terrified. He squeezed her hand briefly before turning to swim after the others.

Kairi took a deep breath and followed after and quickly and gracefully as she could manage. Her movements were simple enough; maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Kairi swam next to Riku carefully. She was beginning to get the hang of moving in a steady motion. She tried to stay behind as to not gain the attention of Ariel; but that seemed to be failing.

“Are you alright, Kairi?” Ariel worried. “You seem kind of… off balance.”

“Oh! I’m fine,” Kairi said with a nervous laugh. “The waters here are just very… different than what I’m used to. But I’m learning quickly, so don’t worry!” She wasn’t about to do any fancy spin to demonstrate anytime soon. Staying upright was difficult enough.

Ariel smiled. “You’re lucky to have someone like Riku to keep you safe,” she said with a slight giggle.

Kairi tried not to blush. It was embarrassing to say the least, knowing that she wasn’t capable of defending herself right now as well as she’d like; it hurt her pride. She wasn’t the best fighter on dry land, so it shouldn’t bother her so much to need some help down here in the water where things were so different. “Yeah… I guess I am,” she said after a long pause. Riku was pretending not to listen, but he was near enough to have heard. Kairi knew that the compliment was probably going to his head at least a little bit; but she could deal with that for the comfort of having him there with her. She didn’t know if she could have done this without him.

She fell silent as she looked around the ocean floor surrounding them. It was dull and grey, not much life, plant or otherwise, around to be seen; the fish had probably been scared off by the heartless. She could only imagine how frightening the heartless must be to other creatures that were smaller than herself. They could be scary enough from her perspective. Still, she had expected to see more in the ocean. She’d always pictured it to be bountiful and full of life, and this just… wasn’t. At least that meant that she wasn’t missing much by concentrating on her movements and not keeping looking around.

There were relatively few heartless around as they traveled through the valley; it made their trek easier to deal with than it would have otherwise been. Soon, they swam through and opening and saw a beautiful palace in the distance. Now this was something glorious to look at; leading up to the palace were archways and plants and starfish; columns and swirling towers. And in the distance stood the building in question, a magnificent palace that seemed to glimmer in the distance. More heartless appeared before them.

“Make a swim for it!” Ariel called. “We’re almost there!”

They swam through the entrance and into the palace, quickly into a single chamber in the center of the building, pursued by heartless. The moment the heartless reached the doorway, they were zapped into oblivion with a burst of electricity.

“Those creatures have no right to be inside of my palace,” a man with a long white beard sitting on a throne stated.

“Daddy!” Ariel greeted him.

Sebastian swam next to the man. “Behold. You swim before the ruler of the seas: His Majesty, King Triton.”

King Triton studied them skeptically. “And who are they?”

Ariel swam closer. “They helped us fight off those creatures.”

“They don’t look familiar,” the king stated.

Riku swam in front of Kairi. “We’re from an ocean far away.”

Goofy swam around in a circle. “Yup. We came to find the Keyhole!”

“The what?” King Triton sat up straighter.

“What’s that?” Ariel asked.

Kairi hesitated. “Well, it’s—“

King Triton slammed his fist on the throne. “There’s no such thing; certainly not here.”

“But Daddy, I think it’s important!” Ariel argued.

“Ariel, not another word. You are not to leave the palace. Is that clear?” King Triton ordered.

“Hmph,” Ariel muttered moodily as she turned and swam out of the room.

Kairi and the others turned and followed her. “Goofy, what were you thinking?” she whispered. “Aren’t we supposed to keep things like that secret?”

“Well, he’s a king. I thought he might be able to help!” Goofy explained.

Riku shook his head. “Let’s try to keep things discreet from now on, royalty or not.” He watched Kairi carefully.

Kairi, for her part, was getting the hang of swimming around. She was feeling hopeful that she would be able to do so more easily from here on out, and once she could, maybe she could actually defend herself instead of having to rely on Riku so much. It was nice for Riku to be there for her again and willing to protect her, but there was a piece of her that had learned so much in their time apart that wanted her to be able to do this on her own.

They headed out through the area outside of the palace towards the exit into the valley. More heartless attacked along the way, but they were dispatched fairly quickly. Kairi managed to get in a few hits of her own too, making the battle go even more quickly. She was still shaky about it and still learning how to even move around at all, getting thrown off balance by each swing and flung slightly forward in the water, but she was indeed learning, and she knew that if she could manage to learn to do this, she have a feeling of accomplishment.

“Are you alright?” Riku checked with her as he swam over to where she had ended up in the battle.

“I’m fine,” Kairi assured. She appreciated his concern, and she knew that he cared what happened to her and meant her no offense; but it was beginning to get a bit annoying along with comforting to hear those words over and over. “Don’t worry so much.”

Riku nodded. “I’ll try…”

She followed him through the passageway that led to the undersea valley. Outside, Ariel was waiting. “What are you doing out here, Ariel?” Kairi asked her. “Didn’t your father—“

“Oh, he treats me like a little girl!” Ariel protested. “I wanted to show you all something special. Come to my grotto. It’s over there behind that boulder.” She swam that direction.

Kairi felt for her. Though her mother wasn’t nearly that protective, she knew that if she had found out some of the things that Kairi had been doing while planning to leave the islands, she would be grounded for sure. “Well, are we going to follow her?” she asked as she started swimming after her.

“Right,” Riku said as he caught up, followed by Donald and Goofy.

“I don’t know how I feel about this,” Donald muttered.

Goofy swam upside down for a moment. “Ariel’s just trying to spread her wings and grow up. She’s still young, but so are they.” He looked at Riku and Kairi, his expression changing to a concerned narrowing of his eyebrows.

They caught up with Ariel, and she led them into her grotto. Kairi looked around the cave; the walls were lined with stone shelves, and on those shelves were a variety of items; clocks, books, statues; and nothing looked like something someone would expect to find in the ocean. And she spotted something else of interest on the wall. It was an opening in the shape of a trident. She tilted her head. Could that lead to the Keyhole?

“Look at all of the wonderful things Flounder and I collected,” Ariel said as she spun in a circle. “I think it’s all from the outside world. Someday I’m going to see what’s out there. I want to see other worlds. Does that sound strange?”

Riku and Kairi looked at each other for a moment. “Not at all,” Riku said. “I’ve felt like that before.”

Ariel nodded. “It’s amazing seeing all of these strange objects. It gives me a glimpse of what might be out there; though I have no idea what most of these things are.” She smiled. “Say, why don’t we try looking for that Keyhole you were talking about?”

Kairi shook her head. “But your father said—“

“I already told you; he treats me like a child. He never lets me do anything! He just doesn’t understand!”

Kairi looked at Riku. She knew that they needed to find the Keyhole, and she knew that Ariel knew her way around the ocean so much more than they ever could. It would take them forever to find anything on their own. They truly did need help… If they should accept it. “Alright,” Kairi said. “But we have to be very cautious.”

“Oh, we will be,” Ariel promised. She swam towards the doorway. “I know just the place to start looking! I’ve always felt that there’s something strange about the wrecked wooden structure a while away… We should look for clues there.”

Riku nodded. “Let’s go,” he suggested.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Around a few corners, they found it; it was a massive pirate ship, though Kairi would understand why Ariel would not interpret it as such. She had not been exposed to such things. “Come on!” Ariel called to them. “I saw something inside of here once!”

Kairi and the others followed closely behind her as she swam through an open door and into the cabin of the ship. Inside was a treasure chest sitting underneath a window. Riku approached it, but suddenly something busted through the remaining glass of the window looking out into the sea. Kairi screamed; it was a giant shark. After a moment of being stuck, it backed out of the window.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Ariel comforted Kairi. She swam over and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not going to get you…” She paused. “There must not be sharks where you’re from?”

“Not ones that big,” Kairi said.

Riku swam over to the chest and opened it; inside was a crystal trident. “What’s this?”

“It looks like it would fit in the opening of the wall in Ariel’s grotto,” Kairi said curiously.

“It does,” Ariel agreed. “We should take it back there. If nothing else, it will go beautifully with my collection!”

Kairi suddenly became nervous. “The shark is probably still out there…”

“Don’t worry,” Riku said, swimming over to her. “I’m going to keep you safe, remember?”

Kairi slowly nodded, though she was fed up with having to be told that. “O-okay,” she said. “Let’s go then.”

They swam out of the ship, and as expected, the shark was waiting for them. It swam directly towards Kairi; it seemed to know that she was the weakest of the group. Kairi summoned her Keyblade and swung at it before Riku even had a chance to react. “Leave me alone!” she yelled at it, casting a blizzard spell. The shark seemed surprised and quickly swam off into the distance before anyone else had even summoned their weapons.

Riku stared for a moment, but Kairi’s heart was pounding out of her chest. She was proud; but that didn’t change the fact that she was still afraid. “L-let’s get out of here before that thing comes back,” she suggested.

Riku grabbed her hand for a moment and smiled. “Good job,” he said.

Kairi shrugged. “Let’s just get out of here please.”

0o0o0

They swam back into Ariel’s grotto. Ariel took the crystal trident from Riku and swam it over to the opening, putting it in… Nothing happened.

“Huh. I guess that wasn’t what we were looking for,” Kairi noted.

“Ariel, you’ve disobeyed me again!” King Triton said from the doorway. “I told you not to leave the palace!” His eyes scanned the room and he spotted it; the crystal trident. It was beginning to glow… He pointed his trident at it and a burst of electricity came from it, shattering the crystal and ceasing the glowing.

“How could you?” Ariel said in despair. She swam past him and out of the grotto.

King Triton glared at Riku and Kairi. “Young ones, you’re not from another ocean. You’re from another world. Aren’t you?” Neither them nor Donald and Goofy replied. What could they say? “Then you must be the key bearers.”

Kairi gasped. “How did you know?” Her heart started beating more quickly in her chest. No one was supposed to know that!

King Triton scoffed. “You may fool Ariel, but you can’t fool me. You don’t know a thing about what’s going on around here. You can’t even swim properly!” Kairi swam closer to Riku awkwardly. She felt self-conscious. King Triton continued, “As they key bearers, you must already be aware… You aren’t to meddle in the affairs of other worlds!”

“We know that, but the circumstances are—“ Kairi tried.

King Triton shook his head. “You have violated this principle.” He sighed. “The key bearers shatter peace and bring ruin. That much will never change.”

“They’re not like that,” Goofy argued. “They’re just trying to help!”

“I see through your lies,” King Triton said. “I thank you for saving my daughter; but there is no room in my ocean for you children and your keys.” He turned and left to leave the room. “So leave at once!” He passed through the opening and left.

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and looked at it. “Shatter peace and bring ruin?” Kairi worried. She turned the sword over several times.

Riku shook his head. “No. He’s wrong.”

“But the heartless; they’re following us around. I know that much,” Kairi said.

“They were already here,” Donald pointed out. “That’s why we’re trying to seal the keyhole, remember?”

“We need to figure out how to do that,” Riku continued. “We need another plan now that the crystal trident is destroyed.”

Goofy swam in front of them. “Maybe we can talk to King Triton again and convince him.”

“I doubt it,” Kairi said. She paused. “But I don’t know what else to try.”

0o0o0

They swam into the palace and heard unexpected words. “No! I didn’t want this!” Ariel cried. “This isn’t what I wanted! Daddy!”

“Oh, but I must thank you; and you’ll get what you want,” another feminine voice said.

Kairi swam more quickly towards the conversation, Riku speeding up and darting in front of her. “We have to get in there, fast!”

They rushed into the throne room. There sat King Triton slumped on the throne. In front of him was a plump purple octopus woman with white hair. “Well, well, we have company…” She turned to face them. “But I’m afraid you’re a little too late!” She floated up and disappeared in a vortex of darkness.

“Daddy!” Ariel cried as she swam over to him.

King Triton tried to sit up. “The trident… we must get it back.” He shook his head. “Ursula will be in her grotto, I’m sure of it.”

“Let’s go!” Kairi said, turning around to lead the way; she was getting more and more used to swimming, and she knew that she had to help him.

“Wait! I’m going with you!” Ariel said, swimming catching up to them as they stopped. “My father is hurt and it’s all my fault. I have to stop Ursula!”

Sebastian came out from hiding. “That’s right. I’m right behind you, Ariel.”

King Triton nodded. “Ursula draws power from her cauldron. To defeat her you must strike it with magic.”

“Okay!” Riku said. “Ariel, do you know the way?”

“Yes, of course!” Ariel said. “She took me there earlier.” She swam out ahead of them. Kairi followed as quickly behind as she could, and that was far more quickly than before. Maybe she could do this; she had to help them, no matter what the cost. She had made a promise, after all; she would protect the worlds and the people within them.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The way to Ursula’s grotto passed through a creepy cave and several other unsettling chambers. The entrance of one cave’s opening resembled an open mouth of a toothy fish, and the walls were lined in ridges like a throat; along the bottom and the sides were unsettling plants that looked to have faces. If only that had been the worst part; the current that they had to swim against was very difficult for Kairi and she had been afraid that she may have to be left behind in order to allow the others to go and save the day; but she managed, thankfully, and they came into a wide, circular room with a cauldron in the middle, a vanity to the side, and an open shell up above.

“Come out, Ursula! You can’t hide anymore!” Donald yelled.

“Your time has come!” Sebastian added.

From the open shell high on the wall, Ursula slunk out with her teeth clenched and a scowl on her face. “Fools! Can’t you see that it’s too late? The power of the trident is mine!”

Two moray eels slid out from the shell and swam around Kairi. “Ursula will win,” one said.

“Yes she will win,” the other said.

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and blocked just as the eels lunged in towards her.

“Kairi!” Riku yelled in concern.

“I’m fine!” she snapped. “Focus on Ursula; I can defend myself from these guys!”

Riku looked away reluctantly and focused on attacking the cauldron with magic. Donald and Ariel joined him, but Goofy came near Kairi. “I can’t do anything with magic, so I’ll help keep you safe,” Goofy offered.

“Thanks, Goofy!” Kairi said with a smile; because no matter how small the enemy, when two against one is never fun.

It didn’t take long for the eels to be incapacitated. Ursula looked over with a gasp as in one more burst of magic on her cauldron, her two eel companions rose into the air and disappeared in a swirling mass of darkness. She growled. “You’ll pay for this!” she proclaimed as she fled through the opening above.

Kairi swam up to where she passed through. “The opening is too small,” she said. She turned to Ariel. “Where do you think she would have gone?”

Ariel looked behind them. “Through there; let’s go. We have to get the trident back!” she said.

0o0o0

They found her in an open area of water. “Ursula!” Ariel called. “Give the trident back right now!”

“You pathetic fools!” Ursula laughed. “I rule the seas now!” She slowly started growing larger. “The sea and all its spoils bow to my power!”

She stopped growing only when she had reached a massive size. Kairi looked all around her; she had to be able to find a weak spot. Ursula couldn’t be invincible; it was just a matter of safely attacking. She spotted it when Ursula turned her head to laugh and face Ariel. She swam behind her head and started attacking.

“What?” Ursula protested as she turned to face her attacker. “The little minnow is the one who attacks first? How pathetic.”

Kairi swam away a bit, but Ursula started sucking in water… and Kairi with it! Kairi swum against the sudden suction with all of her power. Her heart began racing; this was a mistake! What had she been thinking getting in that close? What was she going to do? The sea witch was focused on her, so the others were being able to attack; Riku was trying to get over to her, but he wasn’t quick enough. Kairi had to do something! She turned her head to look back; thankfully she was getting further away rather than closer. “Thunder!” she called out as a bolt of lightning struck Ursula’s head.

That made Ursula stop and realize that she was being attacked on all other sides. “What’s this?” she asked in shock. She turned her head to try to decide who was the most important to attack next. She lunged in towards Riku—

“No!” Kairi protested as she rushed in and slammed her Keyblade against Ursula’s head. It distracted her enough to stop her attack.

She laughed and turned back to look at her. “The little minnow grew a spine, hmm?”

“Thunder!” Kairi yelled again, and one last bolt of lightning exposed the trident in Ursula’s hand. She just needed to get that away from her. Riku tried to distract Ursula again, but Kairi didn’t take the time to pay attention to that. She swam for the trident. “Thunder!” she shouted one more time as she aimed the lightning bolt at Ursula’s hand, and it let go of the trident.

“What?” Ursula said in shock as she began to shirk. Slowly she was surrounded by darkness. “How can this be?”

Kairi swam over and grabbed the trident to stop Ursula from grabbing it back to regain her power, swimming as quickly as she could away with it. When she glanced back, Ursula was gone and the darkness that had surrounded her faded away.

“Way to go, Kairi!” Ariel cheered as she rushed over. She held out her hands for the trident; Kairi handed it over as she concentrated on trying to calm down her racing pulse.

“Thanks!” she said with a nervous laugh. “I only did what I had to!” But she had done it; she had done it on her own power. She had been the one to swim boldly around to distract the sea witch, the one to get the trident out of her grip, and the one to take it far away to keep her from getting it back. She had done all of these things in a world where she was nothing but afraid. If she could do something like that here, where she was terrified of the very water surrounding her—well, she could do anything!

Riku swam over to her worriedly. “Kairi! That was crazy!” he told her as he looked her over carefully for injuries.

“I’m fine, Riku,” she said.

Goofy swam over too. “But without you, we wouldn’t have won that battle,” he told her.

“You faced your fear,” Donald said. “You should be proud!”

Kairi grinned. “Yeah. I guess I did.” She looked over at Ariel waiting. “Let’s get back to King Triton!”

0o0o0

The trident was safely delivered and King Triton quickly recovered.

“Daddy I’m sorry,” Ariel said.

“It’s my fault that you followed Ursula because I wouldn’t let you follow your heart,” King Triton admitted. “And when you found that crystal, I lost my temper and destroyed it.”

“Oh yeah, why did you destroy the crystal?” Goofy asked.

“That crystal held the power to reveal the Keyhole. The Keyhole is dangerous. I had to keep you away from it at any cost.”

“Daddy…” Ariel said sorrowfully.

Triton stroked his beard for a moment. “Key bearers, I have one more request: seal the Keyhole. My trident also holds the power to reveal it. Will you do it?”

Kairi nodded. “Of course. That’s was our intent in the first place.”

“Where is the Keyhole, Daddy?” Ariel asked.

Triton gestured out past the palace. “You should know better than anyone. It’s in your grotto.”

Riku looked at Kairi. “Let’s go finish this so we can get you out of here.”

“I’m fine…” Kairi assured. But she was thankful that this whole ordeal was over. Soon they would be back in the gummi ship, and soon after they would surely arrive in a world with dry land.

0o0o0

The trident hovered in front of the socket that was meant to hold the crystal trident. In a magnificent flash of light, the Keyhole appeared. Kairi held her Keyblade up near it, and the usual beam of light was emitted, and the usual click was heard. “There. That’s done now.”

Ariel swam in front of her. “Tell me, Kairi; your world, what is it like? A world without water.”

“Well, there is water, just not this much…” Kairi looked down. “I’m sorry that we had to lie to you before…”

Ariel smiled. “It’s okay. Besides, if you can travel to other worlds, maybe I can, too.” She swam upwards in a slow spinning motion. “So many places I want to see… I know I’ll get there someday. I’ll find a way somehow. I’m sure of it.”

Kairi knew that she was probably wrong, but she wouldn’t say it. She focused on trying to relax in the water; no matter how much time they had spent here, she just couldn’t bring herself to be truly comfortable here in the sea. Her desire was to see the ocean waves from shore; surely she could someday. And maybe, just maybe, one day Ariel could come and visit. “Thank you, Ariel; for showing us around.”

Ariel looked down at her. “Anytime.”

Riku swam over to Kairi and looked at Donald and Goofy. “Well, we should go,” he said. He grabbed Kairi’s hand. That was starting to become a habit…

Ariel chuckled as she watched them, and that made Kairi feel awkward… But she dealt with it. “Maybe I’ll see you again someday,” Ariel said.

Kairi nodded. “Maybe.”

0o0o0

(Elsewhere)

“Perfect,” Solace said as he sat Sora down in the crow's nest of the pirate ship. “This is exactly where you need to be.” He made sure the boy was positioned comfortably. In the time in his care, he had grown almost… fond of him. Who would have thought? Becoming fond of the greatest enemy to your own future; protecting him at all. Well, Solace knew that whatever sanity he once had left him long ago.

He wondered whether he would be found here soon enough, but he shrugged. The pirates would find him when they found him, and he knew that they would give him to Maleficent. This was where he stepped out of the way. “See you soon, Sora.” Solace stepped backward off of the crow's nest and fell into a portal of light.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Kairi was beyond thankful to be back safely in the ship, above the water world below. She was proud of how she had done and how much she had accomplished by facing her fear, but that didn’t change the fact that she hadn’t been comfortable down there and she hated how dependent she had to be on Riku and the others while they explored the world below. But maybe, just maybe, she was at least a little less afraid of the water now; though she’d have to remember that back home she wouldn’t be able to breathe beneath the ocean waves.

Even now that they were away from the underwater world, Riku was staying very close. Obviously they would be in a close proximity anyway due to the small size of the cockpit, but he seemed to be constantly no more than three feet away or so. It was like protecting her back in Atlantica had given him more of a drive to keep doing so; that something had changed by having to guard her once more in those waters like he used to when they were young. Kairi could only hope that the next world would be solid ground so that she could prove herself once more and show that she could still protect herself just the same as she had been since this journey began; not only for Riku, but for her own state of mind. She didn’t want to be weak and helpless anymore.

Not that she had been weak and helpless back there, just a bit less in control than she would have liked… and Ariel’s laughter hadn’t been at her, she knew it. So why had it made her feel so awkward to hear that little giggle when Riku grabbed her hand, or her saying that she was lucky to have someone like him around to protect her? It didn’t make any sense at all. Unless she was implying—no, surely not! That couldn’t be what was going on here. Riku didn’t  _ like _ her, right? Right?

There wasn’t time to worry about it or to ask, so she tried to put it to the side and pay attention to the task at hand. Going through space was enough to pay attention to, especially since they hadn’t come across anything in quite a while. She was beginning to become worried that they had gotten lost even though they never had before; maybe they should have turned around and regrouped back in Traverse Town before moving on. She had a very bad feeling of whatever might come…

Something was coming towards them; something big. As it grew closer it became obvious; a pirate ship! “Look!” she shouted as she pointed it out to the others.

“It’s coming closer; it’s going to ram us!” Donald squawked.

“Hold on tight everybody!” Goofy said.

“Kairi!” Riku grabbed Kairi’s arm.

Seconds later there was a thud and everything went black.

0o0o0

“Are the prisoners awake yet?” Kairi heard a familiar muffled voice say as she opened her eyes. She looked around; she was slumped against the wall in dark room with only a small window crack of light on a doorway.

“No, not to my knowledge,” a man said. “As you requested, I separated the princess from the others; I must say I had to put up quite the fight against the boy to knock him out and get him away from her.”

“Perfect.” Kairi identified the voice as Maleficent. “I can only hope that the princess has yet to wake up. That would make it far easier to bring her back to Hollow Bastion.” She paused. “Though, if it comes down to it, I can cast her into sleep.”

Kairi slowly sat up straighter. It was so dark in here, and she knew if she moved she would give away the fact that she was awake! Where was Riku? And Donald and Goofy? Were they at least together? She shook her head. She had to get out of here and find them! If she was the first to wake up, that left her in charge. They had hurt them; Riku had gotten hurt protecting her.

“I found another boy,” the man said, “this one in a strange plane of consciousness. I believe him to be aware of his surroundings yet unable to move.”

“Oh? And what of him?” Maleficent asked. “Do you believe him to be ‘Sora’; the one that Riku was looking for?”

“He does match the description.” The man laughed. “Perhaps you can take him for collateral. You know, should the princess be awake, perhaps you can take her using him as bait.”

Kairi stood up; she couldn’t stand still if they had Sora too; especially if Sora couldn’t defend himself; she had no choice but to step up to the plate! She headed over to the door; unfortunately the floor creaked beneath her feet.

“Oh? The princess is awake,” the man said. “How unfortunate.”

“Easy enough,” Maleficent said.

Kairi went to try the door, but just as she got to it, it was tugged open, and there stood Maleficent leering down at her. “You got away from me once, princess; you won’t do so again.”

Kairi summoned her Keyblade. “First of all, what’s with all of this ‘princess’ talk? Surely you aren’t referring to me.”

“You truly  _ don’t _ remember your childhood, do you?” Maleficent asked. She laughed. “Surely you don’t think that key of yours alone is enough to fight the likes of me.”

She gritted her teeth and looked over at the man; he had long black hair in curls and a thin mustache; he was clad in a red jacket and his hand was replaced by a hook. “Tell me; where’s Sora!”

“Why, if you so desire, I can bring Sora along with us,” Maleficent offered. “That much will not be a problem, Princess Kairi.”

“You’ll tell me where he is!” she demanded. She held up her sword. “I won’t hesitate to fight you!”

“Do you not understand that it is of no use?” Maleficent said with a laugh. “You alone are no match for me! I’ve watched you battle; you rely heavily on your teammates. Without them, you can do nothing!”

“We’ll see about that!” Kairi rushed towards her, but she was grabbed by the back of the shirt by the man.

“So tiny and easy to carry,” he said with a laugh. “I’ll leave her to you, Maleficent; I’ll handle the others.”

“Very well, then; I’ll be back for the boy.” Maleficent surrounded Kairi in green energy. “Now, now; I’m not going to hurt you. You mustn’t worry about that.”

Kairi’s heart was beating out of her chest. She couldn’t move her muscles, and she was beginning to get very sleepy. “No! Let me go!” she shouted. “Let me… let me go…” She was getting drowsier by the second.

She heard a door of a nearby holding cell slam open. “Kairi!” Riku called out as he tried to rush over, Keyblade drawn to the ready.

“Hmph,” Maleficent scoffed. “Let’s go, princess.”

She was surrounded by a blanket of cool green flames before everything went black.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

_ “Kairi,”  _ Sora said; this time, Kairi knew it was in her mind, whether he was nearby or not.  _ “You need to wake up.” _

_ “S… Sora?”  _ Kairi asked inside her mind.  _ “Where… where are you?” _

_ “It doesn’t matter where I am; you need to get out of there,” _ Sora told her.  _ “Finding me can wait; right now you’re in danger. I can’t protect you for much longer.” _

With that, Kairi woke up with a start. She looked around; she was sure she shouldn’t be awake right now. She was in a chamber of sorts; like a coffin with a glass front. It was so small, so enclosed; and Maleficent was right outside, preparing some kind of magic. The energy was focusing on her staff, and Kairi felt a tugging at her chest… She had to get out of there!

“Seven princesses with hearts of pure light… that’s all that’s needed to open the keyhole to the heart of this world; and from this world, all others,” Maleficent said. “With Kairi’s heart, that makes them all! So why can’t I get it out?”

Kairi tried to raise up her arms, but the chamber was too tight. There had to be some way out of there! She leaned forward slightly. Her forehead could touch the glass cover. Maybe she could head-butt it to get through.

Maleficent cursed under her breath. She looked behind her. “Blast it, I need to find out why!” She turned, and in a burst of green flames, she disappeared.

Kairi knew that this was her chance. She shoved her body as far back in the chamber as possible before throwing herself forward with all of her might; the glass shattered, and she fell out of the front and into a dingy room with a floor lined with a red carpet. 

“Whoa!” She looked around. “I have to get out of here!” There was a light in the distance, but before she started walking, she spotted someone. “Jasmine!” She rushed over to find her sleeping with a light in front of her. She looked around. “Alice!” she cried. There were a total of six women and girls sleeping within chambers as she had been in. She looked at them all. “I’ll come back for you, I promise! I’ll find out how to get you out of there too!” She got the feeling that they didn’t hear, and she got the feeling that she didn’t have time to dilly-dally. She dashed towards the light.

She found herself out on a white stone overpass overlooking a deep chasm. One level below her, not blocked in by rails, was another white path to land on, but it was too far to not get hurt. She looked to her left and spotted a doorway too far away to see where it led. That was where she had to go; there was no easy solution to figure out where she was, but she knew that she needed to get away from the grand hall where she had been before. She needed to escape; she knew that much. Once she got away, she could look for Sora! Hopefully Riku, Donald, and Goofy would be looking for her and find their way here. She didn’t know how much she could do without help, but she had to do something. She couldn’t let her heart be taken and used for whatever dark purpose that Maleficent had in mind.

Kairi headed to the doorway, running as quickly as she could; but she was stopped by heartless along the way. These heartless were larger and more powerful than any she had fought before, and she didn’t have help. She decided that fighting the minimum amount and mainly fleeing was the best line of defense in this case. She was all alone, and she didn’t know how to deal with that very well. To think that so recently ago she was so thankful to be out of the ocean, and now she was adrift in a strange land where she had no idea what was going on or going to happen… alone.

She came into a wide open area, though just as dark as the grand hall had been. Above was stained glass and pillars lined the walls. There was a simple blue runner carpet on the ground leading towards the next exit; this was where she needed to pass. But she heard a noise and darted behind a pillar.

“I just don’t understand it,” Maleficent said. Kairi peeked around the corner and saw a man in a dark cloak standing before the dark fairy. “I’ve captured the last princess, and I’ve done as you instructed with the other hearts; why is it that I cannot release hers? That power is supposed to be mine by now!”

“Patience,” the man said. “The time will come; you need to focus on keeping her asleep for the time being. As a Keyblade wielder as well as a Princess of the Heart, Kairi is far more dangerous than just being one or the other alone.” He paused. “What have you done with the boy, Sora?”

“What does that matter?” Maleficent asked. “He’s somewhere safe; though I don’t know why I’m supposed to be protecting him now that she has been captured.”

“I need to see him,” the man said.

“He’s in the Grand Hall near the princesses,” Maleficent told him. “Do as you wish.”

“If I were you, I’d be checking on those princesses,” he said. He started walking towards the door that Kairi had come through. “You never know how wily one of them could be.”

“Argh,” Maleficent groaned as the man walked away. “Insolent fool; why won’t he just give me the power I seek?” She followed behind him.

Kairi made sure that she had left the room before coming out from behind the pedestal. She started running as quickly as her feet would take her. She had to get out of there now! Maleficent was about to go in there and discover her missing. And though Kairi would fight again if caught, she needed to do her best to get away in other ways. She couldn’t do this alone.

She knew now where Sora was, but he was back in the direction she had come from and Maleficent had just headed that way. No, it was wisest to get as far away as she could from Maleficent and this man, trying to wander through the maze of chambers to reach her destination no matter how far away it might be.

But… this all seemed so familiar, like she had been here before; but that simply wasn’t possible. She had only been to her islands within her memory. She remembered very little of her original home. And surely her original home had not been this place. Either way you take it, the grand hall had seemed very dangerous and foreboding; but she knew that she would have to look everywhere. She had to find Sora no matter what! She could only hope that Riku and the others would find her along the way.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

She ran out of the room and onto an outdoor outcropping overlooking into the sky; no ground was in sight. She was high up in the clouds. She turned her head to look as she ran farther from the doorway; she looked up: castle spires. And when she turned her head the other direction she saw a symbol on the wall of the building. It was a heartless symbol. All of this seemed so familiar to her now, but why? She didn’t have time to think about it. She needed to keep moving!

Everywhere she looked there were heartless. They were thicker here than they had been anywhere else. Was this where they were originating from? The symbol on the castle: that had to be a sign of some kind of connection. Still, it didn’t matter, that was for sure. All that mattered was getting as far away from that Grand Hall, as far away from Maleficent as possible. Maleficent was a foe that she couldn’t defeat alone. She needed Riku, Donald, and Goofy! And that was becoming clearer as the heartless chased after her and struck her with their attacks. She had her Keyblade in hand and was fighting as best as she could, but the best that she could do wasn’t good enough right now. She was getting injured, she was running out of energy for healing spells, and Goofy always kept ahold of the potions…

And the chambers never seemed to end! More white rooms led to the golden outside over and over again, and if there hadn’t been subtle differences, she’d think that she was wandering in circles; but the doorways were in different places, and the heartless kept getting thicker and thicker… It was like they were beginning to seek her out. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to get away from them. If she was caught again, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to get out once more. She had been lucky to wake up on her own and to have the presence of mind to escape… Well, either lucky or Sora helped her. Either way, she couldn’t let this chance pass her by. Up and down lifts, it never seemed to end.

Finally she reached a white room and the heartless seemed to stop following her. She kept going along, trying not to look down at the distance below. She walked through the door across from the first and found herself in a gigantic library. “Wow…” she breathed as she slowed to a walk. There were no heartless in here. She looked around the green room, out of the large windows that light slanted through, around the bookshelves on the floor below, and back to the small table nearby, a chair sitting beside it. She slowly walked over to it and sat wearily in the chair. She hurt everywhere; she knew that she was bleeding and that she had many bruises. But this room... the smell of dusty old books, the feeling of warmth, the silence where all had been noisy… it was so familiar. She closed her eyes to rest for a moment, hoping that she wouldn’t fall asleep and find herself in danger again.

_ “Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light.” _ An image appeared in the back of Kairi’s mind; someone she hadn’t seen in a very long time. A woman with grey hair in a bun who spoke calmly with her… Her grandmother. _ “Everyone loved the light. Then the people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves, and darkness was born in their hearts.” _ This story…  _ “The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people’s hearts. It covered everything and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It’s the world we live in today. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That’s why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other.” _

“’But some day, a door to the innermost darkness will open and the true light will return,’” Kairi quoted. “’There will always be a light to guide you. Believe in this light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away…’” Kairi looked around. “The light and darkness of which she spoke; the heartless and the people. People have darkness in their hearts. It’s part of the nature of a heart.” She shook her head. “There was a light that guided me out of the darkness and allowed me to escape; that light… it was Sora! So I have to find him!”

She went to stand up but whimpered. “Ouch…” She must have twisted her ankle somewhere along the way without noticing. Why didn’t she have any potions on her? Why couldn’t her magic be recharging more quickly? Right now, as much as she wished she could get right out there and search for Sora, she couldn’t. She needed to rest and recover as quickly as she could, because she knew that eventually Maleficent would look here for her. But she couldn’t just sit here idly. There had to be some way that she could help herself be found if Riku and the others showed up here in this world. She looked down at the level below her; it looked like the path was blocked by bookcases. Perhaps it was a puzzle? If she could solve it, it would be one less barrier to being found. She hated to put it that way... to put it as she had to be found; and if it didn’t happen quickly enough, she would find a way to get Sora back on her own, and then they could catch back up with the others together.

She stood up painfully and looked around. There had to be stray books sitting around here somewhere. The puzzle had to be solvable. But… was it solvable from this side, or merely from the other? A quick look around and she found nothing of use. She had no choice. She sat back down in the chair and put her head on the table. She groaned. “Just my luck.” She sat back up. “And things were going so well too!” she said in outrage. “I made it through Atlantica! I’m braver because of it!” She paused. “I said I could overcome anything… Well… I can!” She stood up for a moment before falling back into the chair. “Or at least, I could if Riku were here…”

She couldn’t think so negatively. She could take a short time to rest; she didn’t exactly have another choice. At the moment not only was she injured but she was basically trapped in by a bookshelf puzzle that she had no way to solve. After she had some time to rest, then she could jump down without worrying too much about it. But in the meantime she had to do something.

0o0o0

Kairi stared blankly at the table in front of her, waiting for her energy to recharge so that she could heal herself. She supposed that she could grab one of the numerous books to read, but she just wasn’t feeling it. That seemed like a lot of unnecessary effort. It wasn’t like she was going to find any pertinent information about the heartless here. If she was remembering correctly, all of those books were kept in a secret place, and it didn’t matter anyway; she didn’t need to know about the origin of the heartless right now. All she needed to know was how to get back to Sora safely, because she would have to fight Maleficent, and she couldn’t get captured again.

She heard a noise at the door below. She stood up and summoned her Keyblade, prepared to attack; but instead, she heard some familiar voices arguing. “We don’t even know if this is where Maleficent took her!” Donald argued.

“It’s the best lead we have; Leon said that Maleficent was working with here as a base,” Riku said. “Besides, we have to look somewhere.”

Kairi stood up and looked down below as they opened the door and filed in. “Riku! Donald! Goofy!” she called as she waved down at them.

“Kairi!” Riku said in relief. “You’re okay!” He turned to run across the library and to the stairs, but was stopped by the bookshelves.

“It looks like there’s a puzzle. I couldn’t get to the right books from up here,” she said. “But it shouldn’t be too difficult to solve!”

Soon enough, the puzzle was solved and they made their way up to her, Riku dashing ahead. He halted right in front of her and looked her over. “You’re hurt,” he observed.

“Yes, well... there were a lot of heartless on the way here and I ran out of mana,” she admitted. “But I’ll be fine.”

“Especially now that we’re here!” Goofy said. He handed her a potion.

“Yeah!” Kairi said with a smile after she drank the potion and felt immediately better. “As long as you guys are around, I can handle anything!”

“You seem to have handled yourself well to make it this far alone,” Riku said. “I mean, you got away and made it here.”

“Yes, I did. Maleficent had me held in some kind of chamber; almost like a coffin. I managed to break out when she wasn’t in the room and I ran as quickly as I could.” She paused. “But I had to hide along the way because I passed her, and I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t come this far and found me yet, because she was headed there to check on me and the other people who were being held captive; there were six people there besides me in chambers.” She shook her head. “But I heard her talking to someone while I hid, and apparently Sora’s back in the room where I had been! I just didn’t want to go back on my own. I’m not strong enough to fight against Maleficent’s magic without help.”

Riku nodded. “That’s okay. We’re here now, and you know the way. We’ll rescue Sora in no time.”

“But what about the heartless?” Donald asked. “This is where Leon said that this all started; where the heartless first appeared! If they’re originating from here, there has to be something we can do.”

Kairi nodded. “Once we find Sora, we’ll find the Keyhole. Maybe that will help.” She stood up. “But in the meantime, we need to get back to the Grand Hall where we can find Sora and save him! I haven’t seen him, but Maleficent said that he isn’t conscious. I don’t know why that would be, but we have to be able to wake him up.”

Riku looked around. “Which way do we go?”

“This way.” Kairi turned and headed, followed closely behind by Riku and the others.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

“So, Maleficent and the man in the cloak were talking about something strange,” Kairi said.

“Strange?” Donald asked.

“Well; they were talking about ‘Princesses of the Heart’ needed to open the keyhole to this world and give Maleficent the power that she seeks.” Kairi paused. “And they keep referring to me as ‘princess’; I was being kept in a room with the other ‘princesses’. And then they went on to directly say I was one!” Kairi said. She shook her head. “Whatever it means, Maleficent is trying to unlock my heart but wasn’t able to earlier. I have to make sure to be very careful so she’s unable to do so.”

“Don’t worry, Kairi,” Goofy said. “We’ll keep you safe.”

Riku laughed. “Princess, huh? You don’t seem like a princess to me; maybe when we were kids, but these days, not so much.”

“I don’t know whether to be offended or relieved,” Kairi replied, “so since you’re one of my best friends, I’ll let it slide. I don’t want to be a princess anyway. That implies not being able to take care of myself, and if there is one thing that I’ve proved since our islands were destroyed, it’s that I can take care of myself to an extent, and with you guys, I can face anything!”

“That’s the spirit!” Donald said.

“We have to save Sora and the princesses! I don’t know what Maleficent has done to them, but we have to stop her.”

“Right. We promised Aladdin we’d get Jasmine back,” Goofy acknowledged.

“Right.” Kairi paused. “Something else strange happened, and things like it have been happening before, but I was afraid to mention them; but this time, he was so close, it would almost make sense.”

“Huh?” Riku worried.

“I heard Sora’s voice, though he wasn’t there,” she said. “Since the first day I was in Traverse Town, I’ve heard him off and on. This time, I think he was protecting my heart from being taken, though I don’t know how that would be.” She paused. “He said that ‘finding him could wait.’ So that’s why I didn’t hesitate to run. I knew that once I found you guys, we could find him together!”

“Hearing voices isn’t normal, Kairi,” Donald said.

Riku shook his head. “I’m sure you heard him,” he assured her, dispelling Donald’s comments. He looked at Donald. “You don’t understand; they were always so close. It would make sense for him to be protecting her somehow.” His expression changed to something along the lines of jealousy. Kairi couldn’t figure out why for the life of her.

“Thanks, Riku,” Kairi said in relief. She had been afraid that she shouldn’t have said anything, but now she knew that she had been right to do so. “When we find him, we’ll just ask him.”

0o0o0

Fighting the heartless on the way to the Grand Hall wasn’t nearly as difficult with her usual team behind her as it was the other direction alone. Though the creatures were more powerful than those they were used to, they were used to coordinating their efforts together to successfully defeat them. No, Kairi knew that the true threat was yet to come; Maleficent would be searching for her, waiting to attack her while she was off guard; but Maleficent didn’t know that she wasn’t alone now. Maleficent didn’t know that she and the others were ready and waiting for her retaliation and attempt to capture Kairi once more. They were ready for her, and she wasn’t ready for them. They had the tactical advantage there.

She was waiting for Kairi in the chapel; Kairi, of course, ran out first. She always led the way. Maleficent laughed. “Pitiful fool; I knew that you’d return for your friend and the other princesses. Now come with me; it will make things that much easier.”

Kairi skidded to a halt and allowed Riku, Donald, and Goofy to catch up. “This time you aren’t going to catch me off guard!” she shouted.

“What?” Maleficent said in shock. “How did they get here?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Riku said. “You’re not going to get Kairi again. And we’re going to get Sora back and save the princesses!”

Maleficent raised her staff and the platform on which she stood slowly rose into the air. “Fools! You have yet to see my true power! Behold the power of all evil!”

The room filled with green flames. Kairi looked around. There was no way they were getting through without fighting her. This was where this ended; this was where Maleficent’s reign of terror would come to a halt.

Kairi noted that they needed to get Maleficent out of the air and down within reach. There had to be some way to disable the platform; she just had to look for it. “You guys; try to get her down to our level!” she called to her companions. They all began to focus their attacks on the floating stone platform. Kairi did as well; once they got her to the ground, it would be far easier to attack her.

They successfully grounded the platform and began to attack Maleficent, who knocked them back with her scepter. “Fools! It’s of no use. You’ll never defeat me!” Maleficent bluffed; but it was evident that she was getting weaker.

Kairi paused for a few seconds. “Give up, Maleficent,” Kairi said. “If you do, we’ll have mercy on you.”

“Mercy? You expect me to accept mercy?” Maleficent laughed as she kept blocking attacks.

“Don’t say we didn’t offer,” Kairi said as she began attacking again. She knew that this battle was long, but it would be over with soon enough with her friends by her side. A few more attacks was all it took for her to jump off of her platform.

She created a portal out of the room and retreated through it, cursing them as she went. “C’mon; we need to follow her,” Riku said.

Kairi nodded. “If we don’t, we’ll never be able to keep the princesses safe or get them out!” She rushed forward, waiting for Riku to run through the portal.

0o0o0

Maleficent was breathing hard as she looked up at them. “What are you doing? What happened to mercy?”

Kairi relaxed her Keyblade for a moment. “You’d really accept mercy?” she asked.

Maleficent laughed. “Of course not.” She raised her staff.

“A pity, really,” a warped voice said as a portal appeared behind Maleficent. “So much darkness in your heart, yet you haven’t reached your full potential.”

The person in question came into sight. Brown hair spiky hair, red clothing, yellow shoes; “Sora?” Kairi asked in shock.

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Sora’s heart left this body long ago. I’ve only taken over the shell.”

“It’s you…!” Maleficent said in shock. “Tell me; how to I reach this true power of darkness, oh wise Ansem!” Kairi noted a Keyblade in his hand; it was strange and black with a red handle; it looked incomplete. Ansem dashed forward and stabbed the Keyblade through Maleficent’s heart. “What…?”

“This Keyblade unlocks the true potential of people’s hearts! Give into the darkness; allow it to overcome your heart. With that power, you can take over the worlds, like you’ve always dreamed.” He pulled the sword out.

“This power! I can’t believe it… it’s true darkness!” Maleficent laughed. “With this, I can surely defeat them!”

Kairi held up her Keyblade more defensively. She stared at Ansem in Sora’s body; his eyes were golden and angry; he sneered at her. “Princess, come with me,” he said.

“No way!” Kairi said. “Get out of my friend!”

Kairi glanced back, and as she did, she witnessed something bizarre. Maleficent had grown into a giant dragon. “Whoa!” Riku yelled as he jumped out of the way of an attack. He ran in to counter.

Kairi knew that she had to defeat one enemy before she could move onto the next. She watched Ansem leave out of the corner of her eye before rushing in to attack the dragon.

The battle was difficult with the green flames lingering everywhere and the swinging head. It was hard to keep aim on the target area, but they were managing, slowly but surely. Maleficent seemed to have no humanity left at the moment, being solely a dragon in desperation to defend her life. Kairi felt pity for her; had she really given up everything she had left solely for power?

A few more attacks and she was defeated, bursting into green flames and dissolving into the ground screaming until only a cloak remained.

Kairi walked over to the portal. She had seen Sora, but Sora wasn’t there. Ansem said that his heart had been absent for a long time; what did that mean? Where was Sora’s heart? She turned to look at Riku. “Did you see him too?”

Riku nodded. “He’s being controlled; we have to get him back.”

Donald and Goofy looked at each other. “There was something so… familiar about your friend,” Donald noted.

“Yeah; like seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time,” Goofy agreed.

“Huh?” Kairi wondered. “But you’ve never met him.”

“I know; it’s strange,” Donald said.

Riku shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Now that Maleficent’s gone, we just have to find Sora and figure out how to rescue the princesses.”

Kairi headed through the portal, followed closely behind by her friends. They would find Sora, and together, they would get him back from whoever this monster named Ansem was who was possessing him.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The Grand Hall certainly lived up to its name. The room was even larger than Kairi remembered, and the fire pits filled with blue flames lining the red carpet pathway were more striking than she recalled. In the distance was a gigantic structure vaguely in the shape of a keyhole filled with swirling purple and other colors that could be seen even from this far away. Along the walls, as Kairi remembered, were six princesses enclosed in blue glass chambers, and there was one chamber where she had been where the glass was shattered and broken outwards.

And where was Sora along with that Ansem fellow? Had they come here to this room when they left the chapel, or were they somewhere else within this castle? Either way, they needed to figure out how to release the princesses and stop the keyhole from being unsealed, because even now that Maleficent was gone, Kairi got the feeling that the end goal of Ansem was the same. Ansem… Ansem held Sora, and they had looked for Sora so long that they didn’t want to give up now!

They crossed the room, which was surprisingly devoid of heartless, and up a set of stairs. Right in front of the large structure, he sat there casually, strange Keyblade in his hand. “This Keyblade is made from the hearts of the princesses of the heart; it is incomplete with only six of them.” He stood up and faced them. “The seventh heart is yours, Kairi; and Maleficent could not reach it because there is someone in the way.”

“Someone in the way?” Kairi questioned.

“Yes; your dear Sora, the one whose body I am inhabiting.” He laughed. “It was no problem to take this body as a vessel when there was no heart inside to fight out of it.”

“What?” Riku asked. He summoned his Keyblade. “Where is Sora’s heart?”

“Don’t you understand? His heart is protecting Kairi’s,” Ansem said. “Quite admirable, to be sure; but also quite annoying.” He looked at the Keyblade of the Princesses’ Hearts over again. “Once this is complete I can use it to unlock this final keyhole and release the darkness truly into the worlds… But it’s not complete yet. I’m going to change that.”

Ansem rushed and Kairi, who summoned her Keyblade and blocked the attack. She knew there was no point in appealing to Sora to come to his senses if he wasn’t there at all. She dodged out of the way of an attack and countered. “Kairi?” Riku questioned as to why she was attacking.

“Sora wouldn’t want someone to use his body!” she explained. “So I’m going to fight him to get it back!”

“You truly understand nothing, do you?” Ansem said with a laugh. “Your friend will never get this body back. No matter what you do, it’s mine now.” He lunged towards her, but she leaped out of the way.

Donald and Goofy ran in for backup as Riku tried to attack from the other side. They were bounced back by magic. Kairi shook her head and kept attacking; even if she couldn’t get Sora’s body back, even if Sora’s heart was stuck protecting hers forever, she couldn’t let this lunatic control Sora’s body and use it for evil! “You’re the one who doesn’t understand,” she said. “No matter what you say, you never will; Sora wouldn’t care what happened to him if it were for the good of the worlds!”

Ansem blinked. “Oh? You intend to…” He started laughing. “That’s great. You’re willing to kill your own friend to protect everyone?”

“It won’t come to that!” Kairi snapped.

Riku stared at her and shook his head. “No, Kairi; we can’t do that. We could never live with ourselves!”

Kairi shook her head back. Did Riku not understand a bluff? Kairi was trying to do one thing, and one thing only. If only she could block an attack properly, swing her Keyblade just right, then she could—

She reached out her hand and pulled Ansem’s Keyblade away from him. “What?” he said in shock. Kairi turned the Keyblade on him. She didn’t know if this would work, but it was the only thing she had to try. She shoved the Keyblade into Sora’s body, and in the action, a tall man with long white hair wearing a tan coat and having an exposed chest was expelled. “How did you know to do that?”

“It was just a good idea I guess,” Kairi said. She caught Sora as he fell. She watched as Ansem disappeared into the darkness.

“Sora!” Riku called. There was no response.

Kairi looked around before looking at the strange Keyblade in her hand. She turned it over to look at both sides. It was so strange. It felt like it was calling to her; resonating with her heart and longing for hers to join it. She wasn’t going to do that, of course. She needed to return the hearts to the princesses…

But there was one more heart that she needed to return, one that was locked away. She lowered her dear friend to the ground. He seemed devoid of life. He was breathing, but his body had no other response. It had to be like both Maleficent and Ansem had said. His heart was missing. But where was that heart, and how did she get it back to him? They had said that his heart was protecting hers. Though it wasn’t direct, something within those words was implied that led Kairi to this decision.

“What are you doing with that, Kairi?” Riku asked as he came closer.

Kairi turned it over another time before flipping to towards her and sticking it into her chest without hesitation.

“Kairi?” three panicked voices asked in unison as her companions ran over to her.

It wasn’t painful, really; she didn’t feel the Keyblade in her chest at all. All she felt was a soft warmth and the feeling of something heavy coming from within her to the outside. As she watched, the Keyblade burst apart into six pieces; each piece flew out in a specific direction behind her. Finally, one final heart came from even closer to her, this one a little less bright than the others, but still full of light nonetheless. It floated only a small way and over Sora.

Kairi had honestly expected something a little more climactic to happen, but that was it; her chest felt lighter, but less protected. Her heart no longer had its bodyguard. She blinked and looked around a few times, putting her arms to her sides. “I’m alright, guys,” Kairi assured as Riku, Donald, and Goofy made it over to her.

“What were you thinking?” Donald demanded.

“You could have been hurt!” Goofy added.

Riku just shook his head and hugged her close for a moment. “Don’t pull any stunts like that again,” he said as he released her.

“Where…” Kairi looked behind Riku, who turned around as well. “Where am I?” Sora was sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. He looked over at them. “Riku! Kairi!” he said happily. “You’re okay!”

“ _ We’re _ okay?” Kairi asked with a scoff. “Of course  _ we’re  _ okay. You’re the one who we need to be celebrating about.”

“We looked all over for you!” Riku added. “First we were apart, but once we found each other, we stayed together to look for you!”

“All over, huh?” Sora looked over at Kairi. “Somehow, I knew that.”

“I guess I should thank you,” Kairi said. Sora tilted his head. “Your heart; it was taking refuge with mine. You were protecting me. Without you, something terrible would have happened. Maleficent would have been able to unlock this world’s keyhole.”

Sora rubbed the back of his head again. “I kind of remember that, too; it was so strange. It was like I was there but I wasn’t.” He shrugged. “You’re welcome, Kairi; I’ll always protect you in any way that I can.”

“I know you will,” Kairi said with a smile. Now they were all together again, safe and sound. Kairi never wanted them to be apart again.

“So you’re Sora!” Goofy said cheerfully. “Kairi and Riku told us a lot about you. The name’s Goofy.”

Donald was studying Sora carefully. He shook his head. “I’m Donald Duck!”

Sora looked over at them and looked puzzled. “It’s… nice to meet you,” he said. “It’s so odd; I feel like I should say, ‘it’s nice to see you again.’”

“What? You too?” Donald asked in shock.

Kairi tilted her head. “You… feel like you already knew each other.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Sora said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s because my heart was with yours and you’re so close to them.”

“You’re right,” Goofy agreed.

Kairi looked over and saw the princesses beginning to emerge from their chambers and look around. She rushed over to them. “Are you alright?” she asked them.

“Kairi?” Jasmine asked. “What happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Kairi explained. “Jafar took you to the Cave of Wonders, and from there, a witch named Maleficent took you away; presumably here.”

Alice rushed over. “Kairi! You saved us!”

Kairi rubbed the back of her head. She knew that they were right, but she didn’t want to boast about it. “It was nothing,” she said. The other princesses came over. Kairi glanced cautiously back at her friends, who were waiting for a sign to come over. “I didn’t do it alone, after all.”

A loud noise came from behind Kairi and the others came running. “The darkness; it’s coming out of the keyhole!” Riku said. “We need to get out of here!”

Sora was lagging behind. Kairi ran over to him. “Sora! Are you okay?”

He nodded, but slowed. “I’m fine. Just a little dizzy is all.”

Kairi nodded and made sure to stay with him. “Let’s get out of here, everyone!” Kairi said. The princesses went running ahead, and Kairi and her friends followed quickly behind.

0o0o0

They reached the castle chapel and were all discussing what to do. Kairi walked over to the princesses; everyone had been introduced.

“I think we can hold back the darkness for a short amount of time,” Aurora said.

Snow White nodded. “If we work together, we can keep it at bay, at least long enough for the keyhole to be sealed.”

“That’s great!” Kairi said. “Riku and I can go seal the keyhole and come right back!”

“Oh, do be careful,” Alice said. “It would be awful if something were to happen to you or your friends.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll be cautious.”

“I’ll have to apologize to Aladdin later; I need to stay here a little longer,” Jasmine said.

Belle looked around. “Say Riku; did you say you saw Beast?”

Riku nodded. “We crossed paths before we found Kairi. He should be around here somewhere.”

“I’ll search for him once the keyhole is sealed,” she said.

“I want to help seal this ‘keyhole’ too!” Sora said.

Kairi and Riku looked over at him. Kairi walked across the room. “Sora… you don’t have a Keyblade or any weapon at all right now. You can’t come.”

“Don’t worry, Sora; we can take care of each other, and we’ll be back soon,” Riku assured. “You need to stay here with the princesses for now.”

He crossed his arms but nodded. “As soon as this is over, I need to get some kind of weapon. I’m not going to sit around and let you guys save the day all of the time.”

“Say, are you sure Sora doesn’t have a Keyblade?” Goofy asked curiously. 

Sora held out his hand. Nothing appeared. He shook his head. “Nope.” He looked just as surprised and Donald and Goofy did by that fact.

Donald shook his head. “It’ll be okay, Sora,” he said. “Goofy and I have kept Kairi and Riku safe this far. We’ll keep doing so.”

Sora nodded. “We’ll talk when this is over; I don’t think you can wait forever.”

Kairi thought of something. “Oh!” she pulled her charm of reunion from her pocket. “I made this back on the islands the day before they were destroyed.” She put in his hand. “It’s my lucky charm, so I promise I’ll come back for it.”

Sora looked at it curiously. “Alright. Now go!”

Riku grinned. Kairi turned around and ran back in the direction from which they had come, followed closely behind by her companions in battle.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The entrance into the keyhole was darker than it had been before, the violet now a more ominous shade of dark purple. Still, they ran into the room without hesitation, knowing that the princesses’ light would protect them from the darkness. The keyhole was in sight, a simple, small opening much like any others that they had found. It was a wonder that it would take so much power to open it. One could only hope it would be far easier to seal for good.

But out of the shadows, hidden by its similar coloration, came a gigantic violet beast with a large horn on the center of its head, massive tusks, and muscular legs upon which it stood. “Get ready to fight!” Kairi told Riku and the others. Everyone drew their weapons.

Though powerful, the creature was quite slow; the tricky part was that the only vulnerable spot seemed to be the horn on the top of its head. Kairi and Riku climbed up the creatures back while Donald and Goofy kept it distracted from below. It didn’t take long for the beast to succumb to their attacks.

Kairi walked up to the keyhole in the swirling vortex of darkness that surrounded them. She lifted her Keyblade in front of the opening, and as usual, with a beam of light, there was a click, and they knew that their job was done. A gummi piece fell to the ground. Kairi picked it up.

Together, they walked out of the keyhole-holding structure. Outside stood some familiar faces: Leon, Yuffie, Aerith. “What are you guys doing here?” Kairi asked them curiously.

“This was our world, before the heartless took over,” Aerith explained. “We were forced away long ago; now we’ve come back. We’d love to renew it to what it once was.”

“Oh,” Kairi said. “I guess that makes sense…” She sighed. “There goes my idea to take Sora back to Traverse Town to stay with you guys to be safe.”

“Huh?” Riku asked. “We’re taking him along, right? We’ll get him a weapon. He’ll be safe!”

Kairi nodded. “Right. Sorry. I’m just… worried. Something seems off about him, but I couldn’t tell you what it might be. I just feel like something’s missing; that something changed…”

“Nothing’s changed, Kairi,” Goofy assured, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”

Donald looked skeptical. “Kairi’s right, though; it feels like something is very different now, but I couldn’t tell you what. Like none of this ever really happened…”

“That’s crazy talk!” Riku protested. “Of course none of this has happened before. Time doesn’t pass more than once!”

Kairi sighed. “Right. It’s just a feeling of déjà vu or something… only not.”

Leon stood up straighter. “You know, things have felt strange for a while for me too. I feel like whenever you said the name ‘Sora’, a face came to my mind, someone whom I’d never met.”

“Huh?” Kairi wondered. “Well, he’s just in another room. You guys can come meet him! I’m sure it’s just coincidence, and when you see him, you’ll see that it’s true!” She was nervous though. First Donald and Goofy feeling like they already knew Sora, now Leon; everyone feeling like something was off, like something had changed. Like none of this really happened…

“Let’s go,” Riku said, leading the way. He looked worried. “The sooner we check on Sora, the sooner we can dispel this stupid anxiety that’s gotten into everyone.”

0o0o0

They all made it back to the chapel to an anxious scene. All of the princesses were chattering worriedly, surrounding where Sora had stood. Kairi ran over at full speed. “What’s wrong?”

She spotted him on the ground, slumped over against the wall. “He just collapsed!” Jasmine said. “I was speaking with him, saying how I felt like I had met him before, and he just fell unconscious!”

Kairi crouched down next to him as Riku caught up. “Sora?” she called to him, gently shaking his shoulder. “Sora, wake up!”

“Huh?” Sora asked confusedly. He looked around. “What happened?”

“You collapsed suddenly,” Jasmine explained. “We were talking, and you fainted.”

“Are you alright?” Riku asked.

Sora nodded and stood up. “I’m fine. I don’t know what could have caused that. I’ve got a bit of a headache, but other than that, nothing’s wrong.” He looked over at Leon and the others. “Do I know you?” he asked in confusion.

“No. We’ve never met,” Leon said. “Though it doesn’t feel that way.”

“This has to be something the darkness is doing,” Riku decided. “We need to figure out what it is, and stop it. We can’t have everyone worrying about things that have no meaning. The darkness will always work to confuse you. I learned that the hard way—“ Riku stopped and looked puzzled. “Huh? What was I talking about? I’ve never been that close to the darkness…”

“What the heck is going on here?” Kairi asked in despair. “Nothing’s making any sense. Everything feels so wrong! Like something’s changed. Something’s different.”

Sora held out his hand and frowned. “I should have a Keyblade; why don’t I have my Keyblade?”

“Why would you have a Keyblade?” Riku disagreed.

“No, he’s right,” Donald argued. “He’s supposed to be the key bearer! We traveled with him, not Kairi!”

Kairi froze and looked at them. “What?” she felt her heart fall. Everything felt very cold. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t listen to him, Kairi,” Goofy assured. “He’s just as confused as all of us. We’ve been traveling with you this whole time; I don’t know why I feel like I knew Sora, because I’m a hundred percent sure that we’ve been around you, not him.”

Donald looked over and nodded. “I’m sorry, Kairi. That came out wrong. What I meant was that I feel like that’s what happened; not that it was true.”

Kairi nodded. She paused to think. “I just don’t understand why all of the sudden everything seems so out of place for everyone. Everything was fine—“

“Until I woke up.” Sora said with a sigh. “I guess I messed something up. But I don’t understand why that would be. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry; you didn’t do anything,” Riku assured. “I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone’s heads, but it’s not something that you did.”

“Isn’t it marvelous?” a strange voice said. “All was going so well, but of course, the one who connected with the most hearts would be the catalyst of chaos.”

Kairi whipped around to face the voice. Out of a beam of light appeared a strange man in a white cloak. His hair was blonde and his eyes were a sinister green; his skin was tanned and he seemed to glow. “Who are you?” Kairi demanded.

“Solace, once a High Seraph, but no more,” he introduced. “And oh, this has been so much fun.”

“Fun? What are you talking about?” Riku asked.

“The changes I’ve made; or rather, the change singular. It caused so many chains of events to come into play that differed from the original. And all it took was changing one person’s position in the story.” He laughed. “By moving Kairi into the universe’s driver’s seat, things have managed to change infinitely. And no one ever would have noticed if there wasn’t this giant blip that I didn’t expect. Who would have known that the dull, ordinary boy would be where things were discovered.” He walked towards them. “But don’t worry; nothing can ever change back now. You may as well get used to this feeling and move on from it. Time is never set in stone at the start, but this timeline has set in the clay. The ink has dried on the page. On that night on the Destiny Islands, it wasn’t Sora that got a Keyblade. And no one took any notice at all. No one said a word of difference.”

“This is my fault?” Kairi gasped. “What happened? What did you do?”

“Worry not, princess; this isn’t your fault in the least,” Solace assured. “It was my doing alone. And this is where I step out of the way. I just wanted to see the chaos first hand for a moment or two. I’ll go back to watching from afar…” Solace looked between everyone. “So much changed; the future now is so different. In this future, I will survive. In this future new future, my fate has changed. I will not be destroyed… All this from moving one Keyblade.” He shook his head. “There is still a far more important foe that you must face; you’d best move on from this blip and face them, or else this time, Xehanort might just win.”

“Xehanort?” Sora demanded. “What do you mean, Xehanort might win ‘this time’?”

“Who’s Xehanort?” Riku worried. “Why does that name sound so… familiar?”

“You’ll just have to find out for yourselves,” Solace said with a laugh. The beam of light reappeared behind him. “Best of luck in this new world. I truly do mean that,” he said as he backed into it. “Because now, I have no reason to care.”

“A more important foe?” Kairi worried as he disappeared. “That could only mean—“

“Ansem!” Riku said. “We need to find where Ansem went!”

“Right!” Kairi said. “He’s the one who was manipulating Maleficent and the heartless! We have to get rid of him before anything else happens.”

“Everyone’s so confused… because of me?” Sora asked.

Kairi rushed over to him. “Don’t worry about it, Sora,” she said, squeezing his hand. “It’s nothing we can change right now.”

“That Solace is bad news,” Sora decided. “Maybe we need to take care of other things first, but we can’t let him slide to the back of our minds.”

Riku nodded in agreement. “We’ll worry about Solace later; for now, we need to focus on find Ansem and stopping him from winning. Then we can find out more about this ‘Xehanort’.”

“One thing at a time,” Kairi decided. She looked at Sora. “And the first thing we need to do is get you a weapon and get Cid to put this gummi block onto our ship.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive the odd situation with Solace. I’m trying to decide just how much I want to connect it to my other series, where he was originally created in an unpublished story that I don’t know if I want to take the time to edit since no one reads the series. His original line was “In this future, the one who destroyed me will never be born,” but that didn’t necessarily fit if I don’t connect things properly, so this was a last minute change. Solace is confusing, but in one way or another, he will be explained eventually.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

“I feel like I know you, kid,” Cid said to Sora.

“So does everyone else,” Sora said dully as he resumed studying his new sword; it was a simple blade, but powerful. It didn’t look as fancy as most things crafted by the moogles but they were all sure that it lived up to their standards. Simple silver with a delicate inlay of leaves and hearts, all honed into a well-balanced blade. 

Cid looked at Kairi curiously. “I take it there’s a story there?”

“A long one. Don’t worry about it, Cid.” Kairi smiled. “I just hope that the gummi block will enable us to go beyond Hollow Bastion.”

“I’ll be heading back there soon, too,” Cid acknowledged.

“You’re from Hollow Bastion?” Goofy asked.

“It’s called ‘Radiant Garden’; or at least, it used to be.” He shook his head. “Now it’s such a shadow of what it once was I’m not surprised it’s called only Hollow Bastion. I’d hate to see what it’s become. Last I knew, it was a hornet’s nest of heartless.”

“It certainly was while we were there,” Riku agreed. “But hopefully we managed to change that a bit while we were there.”

“I don’t know what all is out there,” Cid said. “But you’d best be careful. I’ve heard of a graveyard of worlds where the darkness gathers.” He studied Sora. “Keep an eye on him; he hasn’t got your experience to protect him.”

“Don’t worry; we plan on it,” Kairi assured. “It took this long to find Sora; I’m not about to let him get hurt.”

“Guys, it’s not like I can’t fight!” Sora complained.

“You haven’t fought real battles,” Riku disagreed. “Sparring back on the islands doesn’t count for much.”

“Maybe we ought to get out there and practice some before we go; and Donald, can you teach him a few spells?” Kairi asked.

Donald nodded. “Certainly. He has a lot of potential.”

Sora grinned. “Thanks, Donald.”

“No point in headed out into the lion’s den unprepared,” Riku agreed. “I know we don’t have long, but we can’t have any of us getting hurt, either. It might be a good idea to reassess everything; maybe see what’s happened since we’ve left some places.”

“That seems a bit much,” Kairi disagreed. “I’m sure there are still some heartless around here to fight to practice; and we can always go to Merlin’s to practice magic.”

“I think we all could use a break,” Goofy agreed.

“But not a long one,” Donald reiterated. “And we’re not wasting it either. We’re using it for practice.”

“Sorry to be holding you back,” Sora said. He looked down with a frown.

“Hey, no frowning. No sad face,” Donald said worriedly.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Sora tried to grin but failed.

Cid shook his head. “You all are a bunch of goof-balls. It’s a wonder the universe hasn’t imploded if you guys are the Keyblade masters.” He paused. “I’ll get this installed on your ship. Why don’t you go ahead and explore while you wait?” He headed off.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Kairi said. “So let’s go find some heartless!” She started walking. “Sora, there are so many other worlds I’d love to show you one day! But we don’t have all the time in the world to do so right now.”

“That’s alright, Kairi,” Sora said. “You’ve told me a lot of what happened, so I’m not completely in the dark; you and Riku just have to make sure I’m with you your next big adventure.” He paused. “Besides, I feel like I saw a lot of it happen from within your heart.”

Kairi stopped and smiled. “Good.” Someday, she would show Sora everything he had missed; but right now, things were too important to sit back and relax. A short break was in order, but re-exploring the universe was out of the question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that was a super-short, calm before the storm chapter, but it was necessary and separate enough to be its own chapter.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Sora was a surprisingly good fighter for his lack of experience; it seemed like he’d fought real battles before, just not with this weapon. He was taking to spells quite easily, and he was definitely learning a lot in a short span of time about many other things. He already seemed to know quite a bit about other worlds and their mechanics; not to meddle and not to cause scenes; try to blend in as best as possible. It was a simple enough task to teach him all of the little things. He was a fast learner.

Soon enough they had gotten on their gummi ship and set off on their way. On their journey to whatever destination might lie in wait, Riku and Kairi told Sora about everything that had happened. He just nodded in acknowledgement; it was like he knew what had happened but wasn’t saying anything because there were pieces that didn’t quite click together like thought they should. But it all came down to one thing as they approached a bizarre world that looked like a vortex sucking things in—“Thanks for letting me come along,” Sora told them. “Thanks for not leaving me behind even though I don’t have experience.”

“Of course we weren’t about to leave you behind!” Kairi promised.

Riku nodded. “Even if Donald and Goofy had tried to argue, we would have convinced them.”

“And we weren’t about to make that mistake again,” Donald acknowledged. “We’re here,” he said.

Kairi looked out from the cockpit at the empty expanse around her. The world glow a soft lilac color, but nothing but sky was to be seen beyond a few rocks here and there. “There’s not anything here,” she said. 

“There’s more than meets the eye,” Donald said. “It doesn’t look like much from here, but deeper in, there’s more to be found.”

“If you say so…”

She stepped out of the ship and onto the large boulder where they were to start. “How are we supposed to get anywhere? There’s nothing to walk on!”

With no hesitation, Riku put one foot down off of the rock; it sat on a solid surface. “There’s a surface here; you just can’t see it.”

“Let’s hope it’s everywhere, then,” Sora said. “So we don’t fall off into an abyss.”

They tread lightly on the eerie surface, aiming between boulders and stones as points of reference as to what direction they were heading. The non-descript land was beautiful to look at, glowing a with a faint light; but that faint light began to make Kairi weary and she wanted to look away from it, but there was nowhere else to look. The air was misty and heavy; the mist didn’t seem to be water so much as particles of worlds decaying into the abyss. After some time, they made some progress and spotted something nearby.

They entered the cave in silence; there wasn’t much to say. This wasn’t the time for pleasant conversations regardless of how happy they were to have been reunited with Sora. The worlds were falling apart; the darkness was taking over everything. Ansem was the cause of this, and he had to be stopped. He had to be around here somewhere; but where?

The cave was eerie; the walls were imbedded with little hints of other worlds. A patch of sand here, a discarded toy there, a few bricks, a tree; lots of gummi blocks. It was like this was where the worlds had gone when they were overtaken by darkness. What had happened to the people who had lived there? Where were these people who had lost their homes, and would these bits and pieces ever be reunited to form something concrete again? These fragments were all that remained; was there anyone out there who remembered them at all?

“It’s so creepy,” Sora noted as he glanced around the cave.

Kairi nodded. “Let’s keep moving. The less we think about it the better.”

And they were moving. They were going down towards the light. They were drawn to it for whatever reason; regardless of having no idea where they were going, Kairi felt like this was the correct direction. Down and down they went, and it only seemed to get them farther and farther away from reality and into the strange haze that surrounded them in this crystalline graveyard of the bits of the universe that had fallen into the darkness. And in that unreality she knew they would find Ansem, and with that final battle they would be able to move on to whatever would next come.

Farther and farther they traveled, fighting a few scattered heartless battles along the way with little incident. Even though the enemies were strong and Sora was inexperienced, he seemed to fight them with ease. It was like he’d done it before, like he’d seen them and fought them in the past and knew what to do. It was a terrifying thought given what had come to light back at Hollow Bastion. Just how much had Solace changed, and just how much of the past remained within Sora? It made Kairi’s heart sink in wonder; she could only hope that whatever was happening in his mind was not a turbulent vortex of memories that didn’t belong to him; or did they?

It didn’t matter in the end. The pieces had fallen where they would stay. Nothing could be changed… Whether this reality was for better or for worse, it was what they were stuck with. Nothing was going to change that.

Finally, there was a door in the most secluded room of the abyss, deepest in and in the light. “Do you think this is the right way?” Kairi asked.

“It’s the only way,” Riku said with a shrug. “There’s no other way to go. Whatever lies behind here is what we’ll have to face. There’s no turning back.”

Sora stared at the door and nodded. “This is the right way,” he said.

“Sora?” Donald asked.

“Through here; I know that Ansem’s through here,” Sora said with a shrug. “Let’s go through and get this all over with.”

Kairi nodded and put her hand on the door. “Are we ready?”

“As we’ll ever be,” Riku said.

Kairi pushed open the door, and through the burning bright light, they ended up somewhere that she had never expected. “The islet?” she asked as she looked around. The bright sun burned over their heads, more painful than ever. The sandy beach ran off into nowhere. The ocean was still and lifeless; no birds sang and jumped about in the trees through which no breeze blew. And standing at the shore’s edge was the person they had come to see. “Ansem!”

“This world was simply too small,” he said. “For a wandering heart, this island was nothing but a prison surrounded by water.” He turned around to face them. “Isn’t that what you all thought? You wanted to get away so badly, to see new worlds.”

“That doesn’t matter! It’s in the past!” Riku said.

Sora nodded. “It was small, but it was our home; we never thought we would lose it.”

“And that’s why we’re going to do whatever we can to get it back!” Kairi said.

“Hmph, it’s of no use,” Ansem said. “This world is gone. Where we stand is all that remains, and all that remains is nothing but an illusion.” A being of darkness formed behind him. “And beyond this illusion is what I seek. The door to darkness; you see, darkness is the heart’s true essence, and the heart of all worlds is no different.” 

He lunged forward towards Kairi. She dodged out of the way and summoned her Keyblade, sliding in for a counter attack without hesitation. She had been ready for this fight, and she was prepared to face whatever he might throw at them. Ansem was a swift attacker, but five against one gave them the advantage, and quickly he retreated into a crater in the distance.

Kairi led the way in the rush after him, jumping into the crater. Once she was through, though, the others were knocked back. “We can’t get through!” Riku panicked.

Kairi looked back at them. She ran up to the edge of the crater and tried to jump out, but she couldn’t. “Try to find another way in!”

“Look out! Behind you!” Sora yelled.

Kairi turned to look, and there stood the giant black creature of darkness that she had seen when her islands were destroyed. Back then, she didn’t know it for what it was; a heartless. It turned and raised a giant fist and began to slam it towards her; she rolled out of the way and stood back up, ready to fight. “Go, you guys!” she told them. “There has to be another way! I can handle this guy!”

Riku nodded and led them around the crater to look for another entrance. Kairi turned to fight the giant heartless. She rushed towards it and slammed her sword into it over and over, hoping that it was doing some form of damage to it in the end. And soon enough, the monster disappeared in a giant cloud of darkness, leaving behind instead someone to come out of the shadows; Ansem was here, and she had to face him… alone.

“Princess of the heart,” Ansem said. “Don’t you yet understand? This is the end. Your friends aren’t here to save you. It’s up to you to save them instead.”

Kairi froze. “What did you do to them?” she demanded.

“I’ve done nothing; it’s this world that has overcome them. There’s just too much darkness to be found.” Ansem started attack. “But enough talk.”

Kairi dodged his attacks and returned some strikes of her own. She was faring remarkably well, but his attacks were quite powerful so she had to cure frequently. But she could do this; she had learned so much on her journey here, and she would learn so much more on her journey from here on. She needed to get past Ansem to find her friends. That was what had to happen. One more attack, and everything around her faded away into smoke.

Ansem struggled as a seal of the heartless symbol appeared over him. Kairi knew this was her chance as a bizarre living ship materialized before her. There were portals that led places; four of them. Her friends; they must be there! She noticed that she was standing on nothing; instead, she was floating in the air. She tested things out; she could move freely here like there was no gravity. She knew how to get to them. She had to save them!

She headed into the first portal and came into a room of darkness. “Hello?” she called.

“Kairi!” Donald cheered as he ran over. “I don’t know what happened!”

“We have to fight these heartless and get out of here!” Kairi said. The battle was quick enough and they quickly escaped.

The next portal they flew into was filled with stronger heartless and was darker than the one before. “Kairi! Donald!” Goofy said in surprise. He helped them fight and they escaped once more.

The next portal was even more dark and oppressive. Kairi spotted him fighting in the corner, having some difficulty. “Sora!” she yelled as she rushed over with all of her speed and jumped in front of him, Keyblade drawn and in defensive position.

“Kairi! What are you doing in here?” Sora demanded.

“We’re getting you out,” Donald snapped.

One final portal remained, and through it was the last person they sook, fighting the most powerful heartless of all. Riku was faring pretty well on his own, but when he saw them, he said, “I’m glad to see you guys,” with a sigh. They quickly finished off the last of the heartless and returned to the outside.

“What is this thing?” Riku asked.

Kairi shook her head. “I don’t know, but we have to defeat Ansem to get out of here!” She pointed to where he was and saw the seal over him begin to break. “Let’s go!” she said as she led the flight towards the now giant man swinging a dual bladed sword. 

It was harder to dodge his wide attacks, but she had her friends with her, and together, they managed to face him. It was a long fight, but they were getting in more hits than they were taking, and soon enough, the strange heartless ship below them began to fall apart and Ansem returned to his previous form and floated before them. He turned his head and they all saw a door. “Kingdom Hearts… Fill me with everlasting darkness!” he said. Slowly the door opened and a dark energy seeped out.

“You’re wrong!” Kairi cried. “The heart of all worlds; it can’t be darkness. Hearts are made of light and darkness, but above it all, there is always light!”

Instead of darkness, a powerful light shone through the crack in the door. Ansem looked shocked as he faded away as nothing but a shadow in the darkness. Ansem was defeated.

As they watched, the light turned to darkness once more. Kairi landed on the ground in front of it and ran towards it; they all did. “We have to get this door closed!” she said. “We can’t let the darkness get out!” Everything was falling apart around them, every piece of this world that belonged to another being shredded away into nothing.

“Hurry! Close the door!” a voice called from the other side.

“The king!” Donald and Goofy exclaimed as they stopped pushing and looked in. “Your majesty, we need to get you out of there.”

“Don’t worry about me!” he said as he rushed over. “This door has to be sealed from both sides.” He held up his Keyblade. “I’ll get out on my own; there will always be a door to the light!”

“Right!” Donald and Goofy agreed and resumed pushing against the door. Soon enough, it closed, and Kairi and Riku raised their Keyblades; in a gleam of light, the door disappeared.

The world around them was still falling apart; Kairi wondered if they’d ever be able to make it back to their ship.

“Remarkable,” Solace said as he appeared in a beam of light before them. “You’ve managed it even now; this door to darkness is gone, sealed off from reality. Ansem the Seeker of Darkness is defeated fully as opposed to partially in the other timeline. All in all, things are far better than could have been expected.”

“Solace!” Kairi summoned her Keyblade again and was ready to fight.

He shook his head and laughed. “No need to attack me; rather, you should thank me. Things are going so much better for you all.” All the pieces of this world were floating off in various directions. “Everything’s returning to what it had once been; the worlds are returning now. Now there’s nothing left for you to do, to your knowledge; but there’s so much more out there to be fought, so many battles yet to be won. But things have changed; things are different. And now, there are so many different paths that things could be seen to take; but one is set in stone.”

“Huh?” Sora almost lost his balance as the ground where he stood separated from the rest.

“It’s time that you went home, Sora,” Solace said. “Now you are not equipped to fight alongside your friends.”

“I can fight!” he said as he tried to fly back; but he was blocked by a barrier.

“Sora!” Riku yelled as he tried to reach out to him.

“No!” Kairi cried. In a screen of mist, Sora faded away. “What did you do to him?” she demanded.

Solace shook his head. “Nothing. The worlds simply returned to their places, and he was part of yours and yours alone. No Keyblade connected him to anything else. One day, you’ll return home to him; but for now, you and Riku still have work to be done.”

Riku clenched his teeth. He looked at Kairi. “We can’t trust this guy! We’ll have to find Sora on our own!”

Kairi nodded in agreement.

“Oh. So that’s the path you shall set out on,” Solace said. “I’ll get you started in the right direction.” Everything glowed in a bright white light and they were back in their gummi ship. “Go onward to Twilight Town. Your fate there shall be far different than the fate that your other selves took part in.” The column of light appeared behind him again. “For now, I bid you adieu; I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen.” He stepped back into it and disappeared.

Kairi looked over at Riku. “Do we listen?” she wondered.

Riku shrugged. “I don’t know where else to start,” he said. “Even if the worlds are back, we don’t know how to find ours to check there.”

“Will you guys still help us find the king?” Goofy asked.

Kairi looked over. “Of course. I promised to help you guys if you helped me; and you did help me. We need to find Sora again so he can help too…” Kairi looked out of the cockpit. They were in front of a world, a glistening town below in a perpetual sunset. “Is this Twilight Town?” she asked.

“I’d gather so,” Riku said.

Kairi stared down at the world below. Where else could they start but here? What direction could they go beyond this one? Solace had taken them somewhere that they had no idea where they were. They had no idea where to go from here, no idea what to do; all they knew was that they needed to work together to make it through.

They would find Sora.

They would find the King.

And they would fight whatever darkness came their way. They would do all of this; together. Because together, they had proven time and time again, they could do anything.

  
End Story 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry that the last chapter seems rushed and disjointed. My laptop died while I was in the last bit of editing and I don’t really have the access to anything to edit it further. Additionally, I wasn’t sure how else to do it. So I hope it wasn’t that bad.
> 
> Just going to put out there that this is intended to be a series, but it may be a while before I can add to it because I have a ton of research to do to continue because I am not comfortable enough with how familiar I am with the story beyond KH1 at this time, so expect a long wait while I replay the games or watch them being played. Even though the stories will be completely different, I still want to do it right. Additionally, I want to use my creative energy to work on my novel, so I may not be writing as much fanfiction. I’ll be back, I’m sure, but for now, see you on the other side, and see you in any works in between!
> 
> Edit 3-9-17: I don't think that this storyline will be continuing after all. I have moved on with my writing and am no longer writing fanfiction. I'm sorry if people's hopes were up! Thank you for reading my work, and I hope that one day you might pick up one of my novels in a bookstore.


End file.
